Abstract
Background
Pharmacy has experienced both incomplete professionalization and deprofessionalization. Since the late 1970s, a concerted attempt has been made to re-professionalize pharmacy in the United Kingdom (UK) through role extension—a key feature of which has been a drive for greater pharmacy involvement in public health. However, the continual corporatization of the UK community pharmacy sector may reduce the professional autonomy of pharmacists and may threaten to constrain attempts at reprofessionalization.
Objectives
The objectives of the research: to examine the public health activities of community pharmacists in the UK; to explore the attitudes of community pharmacists toward recent relevant UK policy and barriers to the development of their public health function; and, to investigate associations between activity, attitudes, and the type of community pharmacy worked in (eg, supermarket, chain, independent).
Methods
A self-completion postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of practicing community pharmacists, stratified for country and sex, within Great Britain (n = 1998), with a follow-up to nonresponders 4 weeks later. Data were analyzed using SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) (v12.0). A final response rate of 51% (n = 1023/1998) was achieved.
Results
The level of provision of emergency hormonal contraception on a patient group direction, supervised administration of medicines, and needle-exchange schemes was lower in supermarket pharmacies than in the other types of pharmacy. Respondents believed that supermarkets and the major multiple pharmacy chains held an advantageous position in terms of attracting financing for service development despite suggesting that the premises of such pharmacies may not be the most suitable for the provision of such services.
Conclusions
A mixed market in community pharmacy may be required to maintain a comprehensive range of pharmacy-based public health services and provide maximum benefit to all patients. Longitudinal monitoring is recommended to ensure that service provision is adequate across the pharmacy network.
Pharmacy has experienced both incomplete professionalization and deprofessionalization. Since the late 1970s, a concerted attempt has been made to re-professionalize pharmacy in the United Kingdom (UK) through role extension—a key feature of which has been a drive for greater pharmacy involvement in public health. However, the continual corporatization of the UK community pharmacy sector may reduce the professional autonomy of pharmacists and may threaten to constrain attempts at reprofessionalization.
Objectives
The objectives of the research: to examine the public health activities of community pharmacists in the UK; to explore the attitudes of community pharmacists toward recent relevant UK policy and barriers to the development of their public health function; and, to investigate associations between activity, attitudes, and the type of community pharmacy worked in (eg, supermarket, chain, independent).
Methods
A self-completion postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of practicing community pharmacists, stratified for country and sex, within Great Britain (n = 1998), with a follow-up to nonresponders 4 weeks later. Data were analyzed using SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) (v12.0). A final response rate of 51% (n = 1023/1998) was achieved.
Results
The level of provision of emergency hormonal contraception on a patient group direction, supervised administration of medicines, and needle-exchange schemes was lower in supermarket pharmacies than in the other types of pharmacy. Respondents believed that supermarkets and the major multiple pharmacy chains held an advantageous position in terms of attracting financing for service development despite suggesting that the premises of such pharmacies may not be the most suitable for the provision of such services.
Conclusions
A mixed market in community pharmacy may be required to maintain a comprehensive range of pharmacy-based public health services and provide maximum benefit to all patients. Longitudinal monitoring is recommended to ensure that service provision is adequate across the pharmacy network.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 305-318 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Research in social and administrative pharmacy |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 25 Apr 2009 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2009 |
Bibliographical note
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Research in social and administrative pharmacy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Bush, J, Langley, CA & Wilson, KA, 'The corporatization of community pharmacy: implications for service provision, the public health function, and pharmacy's claims to professional status in the United Kingdom', Research in social and administrative pharmacy, vol 5, no. 4 (2009) DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2009.01.003Keywords
- adult
- community pharmacy services
- data collection
- female
- Great Britain
- health hervices
- humans
- male
- middle aged
- ownership
- pharmaceutical services
- pharmacies
- pharmacists
- professional role
- public health
- questionnaires
- state medicine
- United Kingdom
- pharmacy services
- corporatization
- community pharmacy