TY - JOUR T1 - Value or cost: looking for the wider perspective JF - European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy JO - Eur J Hosp Pharm SP - 73 LP - 73 DO - 10.1136/ejhpharm-2017-001213 VL - 24 IS - 2 AU - Phil Wiffen Y1 - 2017/03/01 UR - http://ejhp.bmj.com/content/24/2/73.abstract N2 - Oscar Wilde once described a cynic as one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. While not agreeing with all of that statement, it is easy for pharmacists to become obsessed with cost rather than value (though they see this as a professional responsibility not in a cynical way). Two scenarios come to mind. The first is theoretical in that while reviewing a paper looking at antibiotic prophylaxis for long-term urinary catheters in elderly patients, pharmacists expressed the view that the cost of the antibiotics was not justified. They failed to consider the impact of just one life-threatening urinary tract infection which could cost a patient his/her life (what price do we put on that?). In a second real situation, a patient with a neuropathic pain in his thumb was recommended a treatment by a consultant. The patient's general practitioner on advice from a pharmaceutical adviser was told that the treatment was too expensive, and so was not prescribed. The patient tried a number of other treatments, none of which worked. In desperation, he … Correspondence to Professor Phil Wiffen, Pain Research Unit, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, UK; phil.wiffen{at}ndcn.ox.ac.uk ER -