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Pharmacy is no longer putting customers at the centre of its offering and this is likely to lead to businesses failing, a senior figure in the consumer health industry warned the conference.

Speaking at the SMART conference's 'Big Debate', Trevor Gore, global healthcare training manager for Reckitt Benckiser, said this lack of customer focus was illustrated by the fact that pharmacists spend a €stubbornly low€ amount of time on the pharmacy counter talking to customers. This is unacceptable given that the pharmacist is likely to be the last person someone sees before taking newly prescribed medication.

Sales of OTC medicines were handled no better, Mr Gore argued: €They have been abdicated, not delegated, to medicines counter assistants.€ Many pharmacy staff had not been trained on how to talk to customers. Instead of using the WWHAM questioning protocol as a way of drawing out information, they were using it to interrogate customers without taking much heed of the responses.

Celesio UK's Steve Howard agreed, saying: €If the customer was king [in pharmacy], they would receive exemplary, consistent advice from people with genuine and authentic focus, and enjoy efficient and effective teamwork.€

The Which? report had provided a stark illustration of how this wasn't the case, with the variable experience and inadequate counselling received by many who visit pharmacy costing the NHS a great deal of money, said the quality and regulatory director and superintendent pharmacist of LloydsPharmacy's parent company.

However Boots UK's director of pharmacy, Peter Bainbridge, pointed out that while the Which? report may not have shown pharmacy in an entirely flattering light, the fact that the profession had embraced the findings as learning points rather than trying to excuse them showed how highly regarded customers are by the profession.

He also reminded conference delegates that pharmacy didn't just have one type of customer, drawing attention to the fact that the NHS is a big consumer of pharmacy services. Pharmacy had evolved to deliver improved value for money for the NHS, Mr Bainbridge said, proving how the sector continued to keep its customers' interests at heart.

Pharmacy proprietor and NPA vice-chairman, Mike Hewitson, agreed, saying: €The patient is absolutely central to everything we do.€ Improved health literacy, fuelled by information being readily available on the internet, meant pharmacy business owners had no choice but to keep evolving. €My patients expect more from me every year and are much more vocal about their thoughts,€ he explained.

Pharmacy is also in a different position to other healthcare providers in that customers had unparalleled choice. €Their choice is tied to how good their experience was last time they were in my pharmacy.€ He added that pharmacy had a long heritage of delivering patient-centred services, citing prescription collection and delivery and monitored dosage system dispensing as just two examples.

Talking points in the debate

• Trevor Gore: €Symptoms don't walk into pharmacies €“ people do.€
• Steve Howard: €WWHAM was never supposed to be a [regimented, inflexible] style of questions asked, regardless of the answers.€
• Peter Bainbridge: €If I was designing a healthcare system today, I would want it to be local, accessible with no appointments necessary, open all hours, and available when it is needed. That is what pharmacy is.€
• Mike Hewitson: €Customers are better informed than ever before €“ the internet has been a game changer €“ and they have higher expectations that ever. We have to meet those expectations all the time.€
• Sheila Kelly (ex-PAGB chief executive and conference chair): €Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.€

Although conference delegates appeared split on whether customers were currently the focus of community pharmacy, Steve Howard summed up the feeling by saying: €The customer absolutely should be king, and wherever and whenever customers access pharmacy, [their experience] should be universally and consistently good.€

Peter Bainbridge added: €Every day in pharmacies, people are doing life-changing work. There is variation in the profession and too much of it €“ and there always will be €“ but that doesn't mean the customer isn't king. They always are and always will be.€

Top tweets

• Jonathan Mason, NHS England, London region: €If the customer were king, there would be less variability in standards of pharmacy practice and premises.€
• Mimi Lau, Numark: €Are pharmacists really accessible? Only 3-4% of pharmacists' time is spent on counselling. Is the barrier lack of time, skills or attitude?€
• Kay Williamson, Gravitas PR: €If pharmacists can create a compelling culture, we'll all be happy to hang around for our prescriptions.€
• Jonathan Burton, RPS Scottish Pharmacy Board: €The ability to assess symptom presentations well/accurately is completely undervalued/underrated in pharmacy.€