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Alexander Humphries

Alexander Humphries is the pen name of a practising community pharmacist

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Opinion: This outrageous renomination game has to stop

With pharmacy under such pressure, some businesses appear to be turning to ever more extreme tactics to keep afloat as unauthorised patient renominations risk spiralling out of control.

20 Mar 2026

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Insight: Jabs fiasco should be no surprise

With only weeks to go before the seasonal vaccination campaign was due to start, we were first told to hold fire for a month as the date was pushed back – only for it then to be brought forward. It was pharmacy’s twisted version of the hokey cokey

13 Sep 2023

money

Insight: It’s time to charge for consultations

The economic model for OTC medicines is well and truly broken. With the advent of universal pharmacist prescribing on the horizon, we need to have a fundamental rethink about what the future of self care in pharmacy looks like...

14 Jul 2023

out-of-time

Insight: Cakeism at NHSE no longer feasible

It is good news that pharmacy will now be paid for some of the displaced minor ailment activity from general practice – but it doesn’t address the problem of how I’m going to find time in my working day to see more patients with complex needs...

20 Jun 2023

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Insight: I feel like toast but better times ahead?

With the Government having imposed a new set of utterly reckless regulatory requirements on the sector, morale has never been lower. The announcement of new investment in community pharmacy will do well to redress this sorry state of affairs...

15 May 2023

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Insight: I am optimistic... yet burnt out

It feels like the winds may – just may – be changing in our favour with widespread recognition that community pharmacy is both underfunded and a potential solution to the crisis in the NHS. However, the day-to-day grind is taking its toll

10 Feb 2023

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Insight: What does 2023 hold for us?

I have to believe that 2023 is going to be a better year for all of us. I don’t have anything to base this on, just blind hope and optimism. Sometimes that is enough...

16 Jan 2023

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Insight: High prices mean tough choices for patients

The cost-of-living crisis is striking close to home. OTC medicine price inflation in particular has been truly shocking and it is customers who are having to pay the price – or do without...

10 Nov 2022

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Opinion: Lions led by donkeys

One thing the Covid-19 crisis has highlighted is that if ever there was an organisation that is failing with a leadership that is flailing, it is NHS England. By Alexander Humphries*.

22 Apr 2020

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