Fintan Moore looks at what has happened in recent years to throw gravel into the gears of the supply chain
Many years ago, a friend of mine was so exasperated by the unreliability of so many tradesmen (pretty much exclusively men in those days) that he said, ‘you can make money doing anything in this country just by not being a piss-artist’. And he was sadly correct. All it took for any tradesman to be immediately seen as a cut above the rest was to turn up on the agreed day, at the right time, with the required tools and supplies. This basic level of reliability and courtesy catapulted him into the equivalent of a five-star rating before ratings existed, and his phone number would be passed on to friends and family with the reverence befitting that of a healing charm in a mediaeval plague.
Pharmacists, in contrast, were generally regarded as being good service providers most of the time. There have always been complaints from people about having to wait for prescriptions to be ready, and that’s unlikely to ever change, but for the most part we’ve been seen as trustworthy and reliable. However, I think it’s getting more and more difficult for the profession to maintain that standard. In recent months I’ve gained new patients who left their previous pharmacies because they weren’t happy with the level of service, and the problems related mostly to stock not being available when it should have been.
This is a basic requirement of a pharmacy, but it’s been getting harder to keep ticking all the boxes, and these patients moved when their expectations weren’t met. Before I come over as sounding like a paragon of gold-standard service, I hasten to add that it’s entirely possible I’ve also lost patients for the same reasons but just haven’t yet realised that they’re missing.
So what’s changed in recent years to throw so much gravel in the gears of our supply chain? There is no one single issue responsible, but rather a number of different straws that have combined to break the camel’s back. In no particular order:
- The service levels from the main wholesalers aren’t as good as they used to be because the cut-off times for ordering have got earlier, and Saturday deliveries no longer exist for second-line accounts.
- The High-Tech Hub has made ordering more cumbersome, and often delays can arise if a query gets raised — I accept that these are expensive products and the Hub is a necessary evil to reduce wastage, but that doesn’t stop it being a problem.
- The number of out-of-stock products at any given time makes it impossible to maintain a smooth service. Even crucial items like Salbutamol Nebules have been missing for several weeks. We’re also constantly having to switch generics as different companies run into supply shortages.
- Even more frustrating than products being missing completely is the issue of products being ‘on allocation’ or subject to some other Byzantine protocol that sees my pharmacy completely starved of supply while other pharmacies have enough stock for both their own patients and mine.
- The ‘10-day rule’ on return of products creates the problem of pharmacies deciding to hold less stock and order items when needed, but this leaves them open to the risk that the items might be unavailable when the time comes. The introduction of the ‘10-day rule’ was an act of near-criminal stupidity, but it’s not going to go away.
- There is an ever-growing number of unlicensed or unusual medicines requiring a specific ordering process to be carried out, often from specialist suppliers, which adds to the risk of the staff in a busy pharmacy simply forgetting to follow through on requests. Or the other issue that can arise is that some companies rely for deliveries on courier companies that don’t always hire the world’s smartest van drivers, so it’s not unknown for parcels to get delayed.
The introduction of the ‘10-day rule’ was an act of near-criminal stupidity, but it’s not going to go away
When you weigh-up all the ways that things can go wrong, it’s surprising that we keep as many patients as we do.
Tech-time is money
There are occasions when it doesn’t make sense to upgrade a piece of equipment that is still working, even if it’s a bit past its best. Then there are other times when you do the maths and realise that a newer, faster machine will pay for itself surprisingly quickly.
As a case in point, I’ve got a scanner linked to each of my dispensing computers. One scanner is fast and always ready to use. The other has a power-down standby mode that it takes about 30 seconds to wake up from, and I’ve developed an almost irrational dislike for this scanner because of that delay.
I’ve crunched the numbers and reckon this repeated waste of 30 seconds adds up to a daily waste of four minutes, or an annual waste of 20 hours. Even at minimum wage, that’s about €300 wasted, which is exactly what a new scanner costs. So I’ve ordered a new one that should pay its way in about a year, and make me a happier more productive pharmacist much sooner than that, as I no longer have to hover, waiting for the current one to drag itself back from the land of nod.
