Pharmacists certainly have a role. We tell pharmacists when they are students that it's part of their job to look at whether this is the best drug for this particular patient. If they feel it's not, then it's their responsibility to have a conversation with the prescriber. One of the pieces of information that pharmacists are often missing is the indication, the actual reason. When patients come to me with a prescription for amoxicillin, I don't know if they have a wound on their leg or a urine infection or a lung infection, and it's very difficult for me to figure out whether it's the right choice, so one of the things we ask for, as pharmacists, is to make the diagnosis a requirement on the prescription. That's a reasonable starting place for us.
On November 7th, 2017. See this statement in context.