Page 40 - P4304.1-V94_PS-Magazine-February 2024 PRINT

Dispensary losses

and who to blame?

By Caroline Pond

Often when things are not going to well we
look to blame someone else rather than
ourselves. I suppose that is human nature.
But in order to put things right we will often
have to look inside our own organisations
eventually if we are to put things right.
In 2023, there was a lot of disruptions in the
medicines supply chain, both in general supply due
to medicines shortages and wholesaler performance
because of staff shortages, but those pressures have
lessened into 2024 and yet we are still looking for
someone to blame for unmanageable workload and
decreasing profits.
I wanted to share just a couple of observations I have
made in my recent audits which might be worth
considering when you are looking at your business.

Staff recruitment and
retention.

Good staff are key to any successfully run business
and dispensaries are no different. If you choose to
pay less than a supermarket checkout operator
then you only have yourselves to blame when staff
walk. Equally if you load your adequately(?) staffed
dispensary with admin and other tasks such that
they can’t manage the dispensing workload then
again you only have yourselves to blame if patients
complain about your dispensary services and take
their prescriptions elsewhere.

Respect and reward should be part of every
organisations business planning discussions and
happy staff equate to a happy efficient workplace.
Be fair and make yourselves a preferred employer;
ultimately you will be the winner here.

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