Pharmacists Playing Dangerous Game

Whatever way you look at it or whatever side you are on, it seems to me that the pharmacists are playing a potentially deadly game.

They have chosen, by withdrawing from their agreements to dispense drugs to medical card patients, to use their patients/customers as a central bargaining chip in this dispute. This is a very high risk strategy. Patients will become increasingly distraught as time passes and the delivery of their particular drug is delayed as the interim arragements come under pressure - which they are bound to do.

I can't see it taking too many incidents before people turn on whoever they see as to blame - and that will most likely be the pharmacists who have withdrawn their services.

Whatever their dispute I do not believe that people - especially vulnerable, sick people - should be used in this way.

The pharmacists could and should have come up with other routes for resolving their dispute. I sincerely hope that none of this leads to tears for any patients who need drugs, be that an avoidable attack or a more permanent, perhaps even fatal outcome. But that is a possibility.