Alexandria, Egypt

Dr Sherif el Tayeby, Pharmacist

Area of work: Community pharmacist and manager

Describe your daily work routine

I start working at 0900 in the morning. I start my day by going through the work of the night shift, revising orders and checking the pharmacy stock and expiries, preparing the daily calls which I need to make, and following up with phone reminders for patients with regular monthly prescriptions.  My pharmacy offers a twenty four hour emergency phone service, provides a free home delivery service, prints booklets with health advice and offers free medicines for those who cannot afford it.  Our pharmacy’s slogan is ‘We go for the patient, we care’.

What are the greatest difficulties you encounter in your work environment?

The Egyptian market is a big market so the main difficulty I faced in the beginning was due to the big competition between the my pharmacy and the other pharmacies.  From a societal point of view, I faced a big challenge as the pharmacists in a community pharmacy is generally only known as a drug seller and sometimes a prescriber of Over-The-Counter medicines. These issues alongside some of the wrong habits of patients such as taking medicines without a prescription or even consulting a doctor can make the work difficult.  Another problem is the poor relationship between the pharmacist and the physician, I have tried to overcome this by improving the relationship between myself and the common physicians working near my pharmacy.

What is the greatest motivation in your profession? 

As a pharmacist you have a great role in your environment as you are the main person counselling the patients as the physicians do not have much time to be with the patients.  I believe that the role of the pharmacist is to counsel patients, listen to them and help them to go in the right direction with their treatment. Being able to help patients gives me a big push to complete my duties as a pharmacist.

If you could have one wish granted, what would it be?

To apply the concept of the health care team and clinical pharmacy in Egypt.