Introduction
Simvastatin and omeprazole were re-classified from prescription-only to pharmacy status in Great Britain in summer 2004, resulting in concerns from some members of the medical profession.1 Community pharmacists' views including confidence in selling these products, level of satisfaction with the educational material supplied and early experiences have been presented elsewhere.2,3 The aim of this paper is to describe and compare the personal views and experiences of pharmacists on the reclassification of omeprazole and simvastatin.
A pharmacist from each community pharmacy in two neighbouring PCTs (n = 54) in the north west of England was invited to participate in this study involving semi-structured telephone interviews. The researchers completed the questionnaire and made notes during the interview. The interviews took place in October 2005.

Method
A pre-piloted postal questionnaire was sent during winter 2004 to a random sample of 2000 registered pharmacy premises obtained from the RPSGB. Among other items, the questionnaire contained open questions inviting respondents to detail any particular views or experiences regarding the OTC sale of simvastatin and/or omeprazole. Two reminders were sent. Open comments were transcribed and reviewed by two pharmacy practice researchers for identification of key themes and concepts using content analysis.4 Transcribed comments were read several times and brief annotations placed in the margins of the text, consisting of short phrases which were later grouped together under broader headings or categories. Categories were then agreed by discussion and confirmed by a further two researchers. Independent annotations were then compared for agreement, with any disagreement considered and assignment agreed to one or more categories. Data are being further analysed for key themes within each category and emergent themes are described below.

Results
1156 questionnaires were returned (57.8%). Many pharmacists (674, 58.3% simvastatin; 548, 47.4% omeprazole) gave comments in response to the open questions. Examples of emerging themes common to both are: cost as a barrier to purchase; issues of requests being off-licence e.g. when prescribed medication has run out; and need for education of patients and professionals. Diverging themes include: differences in the need for professional involvement in patient assessment and follow-up; the place of the product in the OTC armoury; and supportive evidence base. Themes unique to simvastatin include GP resistance to pharmacist supply and inappropriate patient demand.

Discussion

Two recently re-classified medicines have raised unique, common and divergent themes and the large number of comments indicates the high level of interest of community pharmacists. Many of the themes identified relate to aspects of clinical governance such as evidence-based practice, risk management, standard operating procedures, CPD, clinical audit and ethics. Findings are limited by the method of data generation which did not allow further exploration of the issues and themes identified. Further in depth qualitative research using pharmacist focus groups or one to one interviews is warranted.