In my area every chemist/pharmacy you go in now has a little consultation room set aside for problems they deem important, smoking, slimming, diabetes control, and they are all sponsored by companies with a commercial interest in selling you the products they produce. When I have been stood waiting for my prescription I have overheard the counter staff asking customers, who obviously come under the radar, if they would like a private free consultation with the practice chemist to advise them on better ways to control their complications. I have complained about the waiting times in getting served because the staff are busy trying to persuade customers to have the consultation, but all I got was a smile and a weak apology. It is obviously a way of increasing the parent companies profits by increasing sales of the products the chemist doing the consultation advises. It is a way of undermining the NHS by stealth, the big companies are pushing their products in any way possible and if this government gets in next time things will get lots, lots, worse.
