Its been a hard week for us pharmacists. To be honest, I'm sort of at a loss as to where to start, but the most obvious place is in London, at a pharmacy called Ainsworths, where a man called Tony Pinkus works.
Ainsworths is a real life, registered pharmacy, and Mr Pinkus is a real life, registered pharmacist. The main problem with this story, however, is that Mr Pinkus is not selling real life medicines to his real-life patients, and in doing so he is putting peoples' lives at risk.
In an expose by BBC News, Mr Pinkus has been caught recommending by email that homeopathic whooping cough "vaccines" are used instead of getting a proper, real-life vaccine. In the email exchange, Mr Pinkus is careful to express his recommendations as personal choice, and this will presumably form his defence. However in my eyes this is absolutely no defence at all. For years, the pharmacy profession has been slowly but surely promoting ourselves as the trusted healthcare professionals that we are, therefore we have a responsibility to be aware of the position of high esteem we may be held in by the public. We have a duty to know that any 'personal recommendations' we make will constitute medical advice in the eyes of many patients.
Mr Pinkus also states that the patients' GP "will undoubtedly throw a lot of fear in your direction". Now, I remember having it very firmly drummed into me that we need to be careful in our role as a pharmacist not to break the trust a patient has in their GP. Obviously, this doesn't mean that we should cover up any mistakes or errors from them, but it does mean some quite careful wording as enquiries arise. Mr Pinkus is clearly and flagrantly attempting to reduce the trust this patient would have had in their GP's advice and showing a shocking lack of respect to the GP in question, despite knowing absolutely nothing about their practice. I wonder if he has ever considered the longer term implications of such wording. "oh, the GP has told me I should be worried about this lump in my breast, but of course they'll just throw a lot of fear in my direction", for example.
Mr Pinkus has also been investigated by pharmacy's governing body before. In 2006 he was caught selling homeopathic travel vaccines. In 2009 he was investigated by the PRSGB for selling homeopathic swine flu vaccines. In 2011 he was investigated for marketing homeopathic travel vaccines again and malaria prophylaxis. In each case the regulator has let the public down by not taking decisive action over a pharmacist who is regularly and routinely endangering lives, all in the name of "free choice". I don't think i actually need to point out the serious indirect harms that could happen if a patient were to use a sugar pills to prevent malaria, or yellow fever etc.
Free patient choice is not a defence when patient's lives are at risk.
I've been asking for a response to the case from the GPhC on twitter for a few days now and have heard nothing. I'm also wondering why the story hasn't appeared in some of the major pharmacy news publications (Chemist and Druggist, I'm looking at you).
This story has really angered me, and i can pinpoint exactly why. I've written before about the constant fear I and many other pharmacists feel whilst at work- the fear that one little throwaway mistake could have huge implications for a patient's life. And there's an added, secondary fear that, if something goes wrong, a regulator could step in and your whole livelihood and career could be at stake. This is a fear that all good pharmacists carry to some degree, and it can weigh heavily on your life. And yet here strides Tony Pinkus, who waves away any notion of patient safety, and flagrantly (I know it's the second time I've used this word, but it seems to fit the situation rather well) ignores the standards of the regulatory body without, apparently, a care in the world.
Well, I'm taking to heart the GPhC standards for conduct, ethics and performance, one of which is:
"Be prepared to challenge the judgement of your colleagues and other profesionals if you have reason to believe that their decisions could affect the safety or care of others"
So this, Mr Pinkus (and any other homeopathic pharmacists who would recommend a homeopathic vaccine) is me challenging your decision, because I believe it most definitely could affect the safety and care of others.
UPDATE: Chemist and Druggist have now covered the story (registration required). The comments section is interesting, with a couple of folk showing a staggering lack of knowledge about homeopathic products.
The Pharmaceutical Journal have also covered the story (registration required). This includes some interesting tidbits, like the fact the MHRA have been investigating 20, yes TWENTY unlicensed medicines being sold on the Ainsworth's website. And the post script is particularly interesting:
'Some of you have noticed that the pertussin products highlighted in the
BBC investigation are still on sale. We've clarified this with the MHRA -
a spokeswoman confirmed that the MHRA asction (sic) was against products
labelled as vaccines.
"Substances and products labelled with the names of serious diseases
such as pertussis are part of a wider, ongoing investigation," she said.
So it's watch this space for the outcome of that branch of the
investigation."'
This wider, ongoing inestigation sounds very interesting indeed.
