Supermarket Peril

She was invited to a disciplinary meeting on charges that she failed to follow a reasonable management instruction.

The pharmacist was following the SOPs issued by the Superintendent, which were categorical and stated that the pharmacy must operate with a minimum of three people; the pharmacist, a technician and a counter assistant.

It should only operate with less for a short period of time in an emergency and only if in the pharmacist’s judgement, it was safe to do so. It transpired that the deputy manager had decided that having a queue at the check-out was an emergency and at first the manager’s view was that even if it meant that the pharmacy should close, serving customers with trolleys full of food was more urgent than providing a pharmaceutical service to patients and complying with the NHS contract.

Following representations by the PDA Union to the superintendent pointing out that the action was nonsense, the manager still decided to go ahead.

After relentless pressure from the PDA Union representative (on Human Resources) it would appear that either the superintendent intervened or senior managers succumbed to our argument that it is the pharmacist’s judgement that should prevail and that you can’t discipline a pharmacist for refusing to follow a management instruction when they are acting in accordance with their professional responsibilities and following SOPs; we believe that it may have been a case of pressure from all sides.

The disciplinary action was dropped however the PDA Union official represented the pharmacist in a ‘clear the air’ meeting with the Store Manger. It was interesting that the store manger admitted that he did not understand pharmacy and yet he believed that any professional decision made by the pharmacist should be justified to him and have his approval. The supermarket manager compared our member’s position to that of a member of staff responsible for the shopping trolleys who would have to justify his decision to the store manager to refuse to push them across the car park when asked to do so. The PDA advised that the store manager should be trained on the professional autonomy of pharmacists sooner rather than later!

In many instances we find that where non pharmacist managers are in control e.g. in Supermarkets or other large retail pharmacy outlets, they try to exert their control and power over pharmacists, if for no other reason that they see professional autonomy as a challenge to their own power.

Standing up to them can be diffcult and the Superintendent’s authority can often be sacrifced on the altar of customer service in a commercial world which sees pharmacists as an overpaid luxury who doesn’t appear to be doing much when queues are building up at the checkout tills.