Tuesday 27 May 2008

Pharmacy and the 'clinical practitioner'

It seems to have been smuggled in by the back door, but now even pharmacists are allowed to have a crack at history taking, examination, differential diagnosis and the management of medical disease. Pharmacists, albeit being quite handy at pharmacology, have bugger all training in anything else but for some reason the government thinks it's safe to let them loose as yet another prong in the ever expanding army of pseudo doctors as 'clinical practitioners'.

One wonders what the government's precise motives are, just why would they be dangerously empowering those who tend to work for large pharmaceutical corporations while trying to undermine self employed doctors? Labour is struggling for funding these days, and Boots et al have been known to be rather cuddly with el Gordo and his greasy pals.

Pharmacists up and down the country are opening up their small cupboards and acting doctor in these pseudo doctor's rooms, some of them are quite happy to get their stethoscopes out and start playing doctor. Whether it be managing the complex medical complications of Diabetes or the brittle Asthmatic, the new 'clinical practitioners' will feel quite at home playing around in waters well out of their depth.

This dangerous empowerment won't even save money as GPs are already paid to do the same job for less, so the government is wasting money and dumbing down standards at the same time, how very priceless. When this is combined with legislation that acts in the interests of big pharmaceutical firms and not patients by restricting GP dispensing, here we have a government that is frittering away our cash in order to keep big business happy. It seems this government will do anything to get their dirty mitts on more cash, it's just lucky for us that money can't buy them trust anymore.

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