Pharmacy hunger
July 14, 2010
A PHARMACIST in the US, Raj
Bhat, has gone on a hunger strike
in protest against his former employers’
“unreasonable expectations’.
According to Bhat he was sacked
after co-signing a petition along
with 43 fellow employees, against
internet pharmacy company ‘Medco’,
for their policy requiring employees
to ‘review, approve and database
up to 50 prescriptions per hour’.
“Working an 8-hour shift, this
means a pharmacist might process
400 orders per day,” Bhat said.
“No errors are tolerable, but they
are inevitable and happen at a
recorded corporate-wide weekly rate
ranging from 300 per million to
100 per million (2005) and up from
30 per million (2003),” he added.
Currently suffering through day
seven of his self imposed starvation
strike, having already pursued
several legal avenues, Bhat is
hoping his campaign will force
Medco to publicly defend its policy.
Bhat is also hoping that the
increased public attention will
force the internet pharmacy chain
to allow its employees “sufficient,
adequate time per transaction to
use Professional Judgment as
needed [and to] do this without
penalising, criticising or humiliating
professional pharmacist staff.”
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