BMJ  2007;334:1180 (9 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39234.436528.3A

Letters

Pharmacists in primary care

Study shows wrong people, wrong skills, wrong tools . . .

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Salter et al identify some deficiencies in a small sample of pharmacist consultations.¹ Their results say more about the need for consultation skills training and the context of the pharmacists and patients involved in this study than they do about the concept of pharmacist medication review.

The pharmacists involved in this study were the wrong people because they had no connection with the patient, the general practitioner, the local pharmacy or the hospital department and therefore lacked credibility. They had the wrong skills because they scrupulously avoided exploring patients' ideas and beliefs and persisted in a predetermined agenda that patients did not identify with. They had the wrong tools because they did not have the medical records or any indication for the medicines. They were doing the wrong job because people who have just had their medicines reviewed are not likely to benefit from a further review. And the timing . . . [Full text of this article]

University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9UT

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