The problem of British pharmacy Part I

Something strange has happened to the life of the pharmacist. It constantly prodded away at my squidgy brain and only as a qualified pharmacist did I fully realise it. 

Pharmacy in the UK is a product of Thatcher's Britain but, oddly, also shares something in common with a planned economy. More than you'd think.

The daily life of a pharmacist working for - insert name of multiple - has become increasingly one of churning out prescriptions and meeting targets. While the starting salary is quite attractive and more than enough to feed a strapping young guy like myself, the pressure to achieve targets has led to a different kind of stress. This is compounded by employers inserting non-pharmacists into management roles to oversee the running of day to day business. Some time ago, I had the pleasure of listening to a story about a pharmacist who was berated in front of the public by such an individual. Her crime? Refusal to supply a controlled drug without a prescription. More on this later.

What has this to do with Thatcherism? Consider this. In the 1980s, a trend emerged (and one that is worryingly still affecting many industries, businesses and professions in the UK) during the era of the Thatcher government where it was believed everything could be made better and more efficient by setting targets. The absurdity of striving for targets meant that things you wouldn't really measure before e.g. hospital waiting times, how long it takes to perform a task; were being scrutinized. Perhaps this is an unfortunate side effect of a state owned healthcare system that needs to make the most of what's available. The practice of enforcing target after target is endemic to community pharmacy (the largest branch of the profession), now dominated by a few large multiples who quibble over how long it takes to prepare a prescription and so on.

While I'm all for a free market and competition, having a few multiples or corporate bodies dominating the pharmacy scene  actually has a horrible effect. To make me sound slightly smart, think of a bell curve. One end would represent a country where all the pharmacies are independently owned, at the other end there are no independents (they've all been squeezed out and driven to closure) and everyone in pharmacy wears those hideous white outfits. You know the ones I'm talking about. Just as in a country's economy, there needs to be a healthy mixture of small and large businesses and without this too many pharmacists would be working in an environment that promotes not innovation but ass licking.

On the subject of ass licking, working for a multiple has exposed to me the pleasure of receiving visits from the top brass in our wonderful company. Everyone laughs and smiles, it can only be assumed that this is completely rehearsed and that somewhere the rifle of a sniper is trained on a few heads.

This photo is not rehearsed at all. Being weighed for how fat you are really is that fun. 

I still haven't got to why a planned economy resembles British pharmacy. Oh, that final year of secondary school spent studying advanced History is finally paying off. The cool kids like myself will remember the famous Five year plans of the Soviet Union in the 1930s to 1960s, the aim of these being to turn Russia into an industrial superpower.

At their most extreme a 330% expansion in heavy industry was penned. It doesn't take a lot of brains to realise this is a little high. How did those working in the lower rungs satisfy those above them? They increased production, and increased it, and increased it. When the target was to increase the tonnes carried per kilometers onboard trains, trains went long distances just to meet targets. Products like seats were built bigger so that managers could boast that they were using more material. The parallel is that targets set out by the pharmacy multiples increasingly appear to exist for the sake of existing. Anyone who's  watched an episode of the Office or read Dilbert will also realise that in the workplace results would also be inflated by employees eager not to get fired.

We will sell 500% more Viagra by the end of the year. What do you mean we can't sell it over the counter?

While he was alive and kicking, Stalin was eager to cull a large chunk of the educated people in the Soviet economy and control them with people whose loyalty was guaranteed. It's a bit like your manager, that non-pharmacist who watches over your shoulder and orders you around. The major difference is that there are no cullings (but that may change with remote supervision), and you don't die. Well, if the managers don't kill you, the stress will.

Next time, I'll draw comparisons with H.G. Wells' the Time Machine and why we're becoming like Eloi and Morlocks.

-Some of the points I've raised may remind people of famed documentary producer Adam Curtis. I've watched many of his documentaries and must say that they're thought provoking and trigger a great deal of discussion. Hence this modest rant of mine, injected with my own brand of humour.