英国卫报:走向失控的博姿药妆(12)

Late last year, I went to the Midlands to meet Tony and hear his views on how his working conditions had changed.

去年年底，我去英格兰中部会见了托尼，听取了他对工作条件改变的看法。

He took me on a tour of a branch of Boots very like his own, a large, relatively¹ new shop in an out-of-town retail² park.

他带我参观了一家跟他的很像的博姿分店，这家店在城外的一个零售园区里，规模很大，相对较新。

Here, the chemist’s counter had a full complement³ of staff. So had Tony’s – when he began in 2011.

在这里，药剂师的柜台工作人员配备齐全。托尼2011年刚开始工作时，他的分店也是如此。

But by then, four years into the buyout, job cuts were well under way, both in his store and across the country.

但到那时，收购已经进行了四年，无论是在他的商店还是在全国范围内，裁员已经开始了。

Now for hours each day, he said, it was only him manning the counter and the pill dispensary while taking care of the shop’s photo business, too.

他说，现在每天有好几个小时，除了打理店里的照片业务，他还得负责柜台和药房的工作。

With no other colleagues around to make sure he was giving out the right drugs at the right dosage, Tony had to monitor his own work.

由于周围没有其他同事来确保他能以正确的剂量分发正确的药物，托尼不得不监督自己的工作。

Pharmacists call this “self-checking”, and it leaves patients at greater risk of getting the wrong medication.

药剂师称这种情况为“自我检查”，这让患者更有可能得到错误的药物。

In its own standard operating procedure, Boots says self-checking must be done only “as a last resort”.

在其自己的标准操作程序中，博姿表示，自我检查只能“作为最后的手段”进行。

Yet Tony claims he was self-checking on a daily basis.

然而托尼声称他每天都在自我检查。

(Asked for comment on this practice, Boots would say nothing on the record.)

（当被问及对这一做法的看法时，博茨不愿公开表态。）

Working by himself, Tony explained he also had to hand out vouchers⁵ for money off makeup⁶.

托尼解释说，他自己一个人工作，还得为减价化妆品分发代金券。

“We try to get the patient to redeem⁷ that voucher⁴ straight away.

“我们试图让病人立即兑现代金券。

We have to: they monitor that kind of thing.” He added: “That commercial focus in pharmacy⁸ – 10 years ago it would have been unheard of.”.

我们必须：他们监督这类事情。他还说：“这种对制药行业的商业关注，在10年前是闻所未闻的。”

But that was the least of Tony’s worries. It was the medicine-use reviews (MURs) that really bothered him.

但这是托尼最不担心的。真正困扰他的是药物使用检查。

Patients came to his consulting room and discussed their diet and health problems,

病人来到他的诊室，讨论他们的饮食和健康问题，

while he took them through a chunky list of questions and advised them on what their medicines were meant to do and how best to take them.

与此同时，他还会带他们浏览一大堆问题，并就他们的药物用途和最佳服用方式给出建议。

Free for the customer, a way of keeping a patient out of a GP’s waiting room, and for each one the NHS pays the company 28 pounds.

对顾客来说，这是一种让病人远离全科医生候诊室的免费服务，英国国家医疗服务系统为每位病人支付28英镑。

To prevent the system from being abused, every pharmacy in the country is limited to 400 MURs a year.

为了防止该系统被滥用，该国的每家药店的药物使用检查次数每年被限制在400次。

Except Tony’s managers took that number as a target for his store to hit.

但托尼的经理们把这个数字当成了商店的目标。

1 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

2 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

3 complement   

n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足

参考例句：

• The two suggestions complement each other.这两条建议相互补充。
• They oppose each other also complement each other.它们相辅相成。

4 voucher   

n.收据；传票；凭单，凭证

参考例句：

• The government should run a voucher system.政府应该施行凭证制度。
• Whenever cash is paid out,a voucher or receipt should be obtained.无论何时只要支付现金，就必须要有一张凭据或者收据。

5 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）

6 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

7 redeem   

v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等）

参考例句：

• He had no way to redeem his furniture out of pawn.他无法赎回典当的家具。
• The eyes redeem the face from ugliness.这双眼睛弥补了他其貌不扬之缺陷。

8 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。