Opening a Pharmacy Store
“The extra-ordinary story behind an ordinary community pharmacy”
Every once in a while, you will need to buy some tissue, powdered milk, shampoo, conditioners, or you needed some cold and flu remedies. There is always one pharmacy that suits your needs just around the corner. You walk into the pharmacy. You are welcomed by the staff inside. You take the products you want from the shelf. Alternatively, you call out your symptoms and a product has been recommended to you. You pay and you continue with your errands. Or, we failed deliver what you needed and we have been entered onto your black list unknowingly. End of story, nothing surprising isn’t it? Have you ever wondered, this shop you just went to, remembered when did they first opened for business? Remember there was a large piece of red paper that covered the pharmacy cross? When it came off? Here is the extra-ordinary process that transforms an ordinary ‘Medicine store’ to a ‘Pharmacy’. All pharmacies otherwise known as an Authorised Sellers of Poisons have to undergo the application process and register their premise with the Department of Health. This is to regulate the profession and to maintain the professional standards of the service that a community pharmacy provides. Once the application has been processed by the Department of Health, the pharmacist, director and the person-in-charge has to be interviewed. This interview intends to determine how capable the person in charge is to operate the pharmacy at both a legal level and at a professional level. Upon a successful interview, a site inspection will be carried out. The certificate of registration will be issued, only when pharmacy proves that proper storage conditions for medicines are met. Finally, when all these huddles has been overcame, the ‘medicine store’ can finally remove the paper cover of the pharmacy cross and legally claim itself to be an ‘Pharmacy’. This is the extra-ordinary story behind an ordinary pharmacy.
– written by an independent community pharmacist