Pharmacists giving unsatisfactory advice

Researchers of the consumer magazine Which? visited 84 pharmacies across Britain and found that more than 40% of them gave unsatisfactory advice, and often failed to ask the right questions. The undercover researchers presented pharmacy staff with a number of different scenarios and asked for advice. In one scenario, researchers tried to buy St John’s wort. Five out of 21 pharmacists failed to give satisfactory advice: in two cases the remedy was sold without advice from a pharmacist, in another case a pharmacist assistant wrongly said that it could be taken with the contraceptive pill.

http://www.which.net, 3 February 2004