Placement #3 - Pulteney Pharmacy

Today I wrapped up my third placement, since we have tomorrow off in observance of Good Friday. I spent this week at Pulteney Pharmacy, which is conveniently located around the corner from my accommodations, literally a 3 minute walk. The pharmacy is in the basement of the Pulteney Street Surgery - interestingly, here in England a "surgery" is a suite of doctors' offices and has nothing to do with operations or procedures. From the street, it looks like just another house in a long row. The pharmacy is quite small, with a very limited supply of counter items (quite the change from last week! It was just David (the pharmacist), one or two dispensing assistants, and myself working at any given time, so I was able to get right in there and pretty much participate in all of the daily activities. The computer systems here are incredibly user-friendly, so I was able to quickly learn how to process a prescription. I also helped with putting away orders (a seemingly tedious task, but a good way to familiarize with all of the "weird" drugs over here!) and did a lot of dispensing.



On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I had the opportunity to sit in with one of the general practitioners (GPs) during her appointments with patients who were willing to have me there. It was absolutely fascinating to see how different these appointments were than what I think of as a "typical" doctor's office visit in the States! Patients here check in with the receptionist and then proceed to the "waiting area" outside the GP's office. When it is their turn, the GP invites the patient inside. I'm sorry that I didn't get any pictures of the office, but it was just that...a small room with a desk and computer, as well as an examination table with a curtain that can be pulled around it. I never saw the exam table used. All of the patients we saw just sat down at the desk to chat about their problems. Tuesday was a lot of talking...mostly patients with pain who just wanted refills on their "paracetamol" (acetaminophen) and codeine tablets. Today, however, patients were much more interesting. I saw a man with a pretty intense case of shingles, which he obviously took off his shirt to show us, and a girl around my age who was treated with aggressive antibiotics at age 16 for a "suspected" case of TB who now has a whole bunch of health problems. And then, of course, there was the priest with the arthritic knee who tried for some time to pull up his pant leg to show us, then finally stood and said "Here, it's easier this way," and proceeded to shrug off his suspenders and drop his trousers. Gotta love health care.