Don’t dispense with dispensing doctors just yet
SIR – I am a retired pharmacist now living in a rural community, five to six miles from the nearest pharmacy.
In principle I would support Peter Hopley (“Time to stop doctors dispensing medicines”, Letters, June 6). However, in practice a large proportion of prescriptions will be for the elderly, many of whom do not drive. Buses in our area are a rarity and dispensing doctors provide a valuable service.
Someone is bound to suggest that, where there is a doctors’ dispensing practice, a pharmacist should be employed to oversee the dispensary, which could then be registered as a pharmacy. However, I doubt whether the practice would be keen to find the salary for a pharmacist which, in urban pharmacies, is subsidised by sales of nonpharmaceutical goods.
Dispensers are far cheaper, and the present arrangements will no doubt continue. S D Harris Puddletowm, Dorset