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A contrived PR stunt that backfired or a genuine attempt to shine a light on some of the intractable problems facing pharmacy? The jury is out on Rowlands Pharmacy managing director Kenny Black's much talked about appearance on Channel 4's Undercover Boss.

Certainly, with much of the attention focusing on porcelain dogs, harassed staff and falling turnover €“ and hardly a pharmacist in sight €“ it is difficult to see what positive benefits Rowlands as an organisation gleaned from the exercise.

On the other hand, at a time when multiple group head office personnel, safely ensconced in their airconditioned ivory towers, frequently stand accused of being out of touch with their colleagues on the pharmacy coalface, one could equally applaud Black's brave attempt to get close to the action and see the issues for himself first-hand.

While one must always question the way ratings-chasing programmes of this type are edited to achieve maximum impact, a casual observer would have been struck by what pharmacy insiders know only too well. Stock shortages, funding cuts and workplace pressures are crippling community pharmacy. The practice model has never been more broken or unfit for purpose. The picture of pharmacy painted on TV was a grim one indeed.

Nevertheless if the documentary has helped draw public attention to these issues and to the unstinting and often unheralded efforts of pharmacy teams in the service of their patients and customers, it has served a valuable purpose.