what do pharmacist do anyway? Every time I go to the pharmacy, I see a lineup of people behind the counter doing something I’m sure they’re counting up pills, but did they do anything else?
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In the UK, at least, the pharmacist is the final and primary person legally responsible for making sure that the prescription you’re given won’t do you any harm (e.g. by reacting badly with other things you’re taking, by being the wrong dosage, by being unsuitable for other conditions you might have, and so on). That’s why, even with over the counter medication, you’ll often be asked whether you’ve taken it before, and similar things. In the past they would also have been heavily involved in actually making up suitable dosage pills, powders and so forth from the active ingredients.
There’s also pharmacists for compounding. Basically they need to make sure that the drug that’s being compounded is the correct drug and dosage so as not to harm the patient it’s going to.
They know how all medicines work, how much you can take, etc. If a medical provider sends meds that are dangerous in combination, they’ll call and work it out with the provider. If a medical provider is sending an insane amount of opioids or benzos, they can call and question the provider and even refuse to fill it. They are legally responsible for making sure the medicine is safe and correct.
There are also “compound pharmacies” these are pharmacies where they literally make the medicine in the pharmacy. It’s quite fascinating. So obviously the pharmacist is the primary person for those processes.
They verify that the medication you are receiving is indeed the correct one, pill by pill usually, verify that medications you take are safe to be taken together, sometimes change medications to an equivalent one in case the prescribed one isn’t available. They also verify that the dosage is appropriate for you and so much more. They need to know most info about medications by memory, our pharmacists knew if a patient could take a medication based off lab results, illnesses, for how long, etc.
They make sure that the pills you’re given are not going to kill you, for the most part. But they also prepare the pills and do other medical things to ease pressure on the GPs.