Unsafe medical sales in pharmacies

The reporter from the 'Which' group posed as someone with traveller's diarrhoea in many.  The results were strikingly bad, with independent pharmacies supplying unsatisfactory advice on 48% of occasions.

In many cases medical sales in pharmacy are a key opportunity to pick up issues which should be referred by to a Doctor, but this will only occur if staff ask the right questions.  In the cases above, very few asked whether the traveller had been abroad and also how long they had been suffering the symptoms, key questions for an assessment of this type.

With plans for pharmacists to hand even greater responsibility to staff the Royal Pharmaceutical Society have said they will implement further tests and taining measures to improve things.