Fintan Moore zooms-in on the vast improvements in the quality and accessibility of CCTV footage
There are many ways that advances in technology have made our working lives easier over the years. Electronic claiming hasn’t eliminated paperwork, but it’s removed a huge chunk of drudge work that existed back in the days of manual claiming. Healthmail isn’t perfect, but it’s a massive improvement on paper-only prescriptions. I’ve got faster internet, more powerful PCs with Touchstore as a much better dispensing package than what I had previously, speedier printers for labels, receipts and A4 sheets, more user-friendly wholesaler websites, improved electronic tills, etc.
All of these developments have led to greater efficiency. It’s not all a bed of roses because the same technology also let FMD scanning slouch to its Bethlehem to be born, but overall, things are better. One facet of retail pharmacy life that has particularly im- proved is the quality of CCTV recording systems.
It’s not that long ago that CCTV recorded onto video-tapes (any young folk reading this can ask their parents to explain), so the quality of the footage was patchy, and searching for a specific incident was time-consuming. Nowa-days, the picture clarity on playback is crystal clear, and finding the relevant segments is quick and easy.
On the system I have at the moment, all I need to know is the rough time of the target footage; then with a click of the mouse, I can go forwards or backwards 30 seconds at a time to get to what I need. People often think of the CCTV just in terms of security for raids and shoplifting, but it’s also a god- send for settling arguments with some patients.
A few days ago I had a woman swear blind that she couldn’t have collected her Diazepam tablets because she was ‘in hospital that day’. According to our computer, we had dispensed them, so from that record I had the day and time, and it just took me a minute to get the video clip of her collecting them… or maybe it was her evil twin sister. The ability to easily find the footage shut down all her nonsense and let us get on with our day.
In a similar scenario, some other patient was adamant recently that he hadn’t got some tablets until he was told we could check the camera and he promptly dropped the subject. It’s not always chancers either — decent peo- ple can genuinely forget that they’ve been in, especially with illness, stress or cognitive decline. Good CCTV systems can cost a few quid, but they’re worth every cent in the long run.
Facing the public
Advances in camera technology and AI have also opened the door to the use of widespread Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), allowing for the mass scanning of faces to be then matched by AI against a database of ‘known’ faces. UK police have been using it at Holyhead port to screen arriving passengers from Ireland to detect people who have been previously deported. In retail settings in the UK, supermarkets have started using FRT to identify convicted shoplifters as they enter.
I have to confess to having mixed feeling on this. As a retail pharmacist, part of me absolutely loves the idea of retailers having some extra mea- sure of protection from crime, given that shoplifters tend to operate with impunity from consequences. However, the potential for FRT to be misused by authoritarian governments is a scary prospect, so I’m nervous of its use being normalised. On a less serious note, I’ve a hopeless memory for matching names to faces, so if I could use it in the pharmacy just to prompt me with the names of my regular patients, that would be great.
Respectfully, Yours
There’s a line that crops up regularly on social media telling us that we ‘should treat the janitor with the same respect we give the CEO’. I read a great comment one day from a guy who had a problem with this advice, namely that following it would mean him treating a janitor worse than he did at the moment, because he likes janitors and doesn’t have much regard for CEOs. I can see what he means, but I tend to just approach everybody on the same level.
… It’s also a godsend for settling arguments with some patients
To quote Rudyard Kipling, let “all men count with you, but none too much” (and women also, naturally). One of the great things about community pharmacy is that we get to do precisely that — we can give the same level of time and attention to patients, irrespective of background or ‘social status’.
I actually reckon that it’s hugely beneficial to patients struggling with addiction, deprivation or mental health problems that we give them that measure of respect. People often have a history of poor relationships with authority figures, so when we build positive relationships with them, I like to think it helps their sense of self-worth. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’ll run with it
Fintan Moore graduated as a pharmacist in 1990 from TCD and currently runs a pharmacy in Clondalkin. His email address is: greenparkpharmacy @gmail.com.
