Cafés are not suitable medicines collection points

Now about to celebrate my 80th birthday, I had thought nothing much would surprise me with regards to our wonderful profession.

However, when my wife and I recently stopped in the Sussex village of Balcombe at a coffee shop, which we occasionally frequent en route to a dear friend, I was more than surprised to see that the new owners had three green UniChem boxes on the table next to ours and a steady stream of people were coming in to collect their dispensed medicines. 

These transactions took place in the body of the café not even behind the counter. Anyone could have just taken a whole box of dispensed medicines and could have walked out with them.

My immediate thought was that this was a strange and possibly illegal way of implementing the hub-and-spoke dispensing system, and I thought of reporting it or at least contacting the pharmacy involved. However, an online search revealed it to be part of a dispensing doctors’ practice, all in order according to the current law.

I was reminded of a conference that I attended more than 50 years ago when rural pharmacists and dispensing doctors almost came to blows discussing doctor dispensing in country areas.

Some further research using Gemini provided more information on the history of the moratorium and this specific medicines collection point in Balcombe. Superficially, it is of course very convenient for the villagers, and the Balcombe website gives full details of how the system works. This is all perfectly legal for dispensing doctors but in my view is a disgrace and poses a potential danger to the community.

As a member since 1969, who complied with all my legal and ethical obligations and responsibilities in all my pharmacies, I feel that a café is no place for patients to pick up dispensed prescription medicines.

Surely in 2025 our profession should be able to get this ridiculous situation sorted out.

Barry Shooter