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The feature articles below are "opinion" pieces and reflect the views of the individual authors. They are not the views of AusPharm.net.au P/L, its directors or editorial group unless explicitly stated to be so.
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Opinion
"One thing about my friends and I, or at least the pharmacy crowd therein, is the tendency we have to scope out other pharmacies, especially new ones. It's a sad truth that we have actually made half hour journeys to brand new developments and shopping centres just to check out the pharmacies there. That's me above showing off my terrible sunburn!" More...
Most other ownership-restricted industries are regulated to protect the public or national interest through the prevention of large players exploiting an unfair competitive advantage that might be abused for economic, social or political gain. Examples of these might include the media and airline industries. It is interesting and enlightening to compare the conditions under which restricted industries operate. More...
"There has been some discussion on the availability of vitamin B12 injections on AusPharmList recently. It has been commonly thought that oral vitamin B12 is ineffective; however studies and reviews have concluded that oral vitamin B12 supplements are effective in high doses. In Sweden, oral preparations have been used clinically from 1964.1 " More...
But at the APP2007 conference this year, the display of tailored dispensing solutions by Willach provided some genuine food for thought to pharmacies of all sizes in addressing the challenges of working smarter rather than harder to maintain or increase both our margins and professional involvement, as reduced funding models seem destined to force us toward higher dispensing volumes. More...
[he is thrown over the edge into a volcano]
Not only have we had lots of calls at the Adverse Medicine events Line from worried consumers, but we have also had many requests from doctors and pharmacists seeking advice for consumers who take zolpidem without obvious ill effect. I will give you some guidance on this later, but first let me fill you in on what's being reported. More...
"Pharmacy organisations and regulatory authorities seem obsessed with narrow definitions and tight regulations that may well suit the majority of practice situations, but the same people seem indifferent to, if not outright hostile towards, the pharmacy service needs of atypical groups, such as rural people." More...
"...change....is creating a conundrum for pharmacists, who have traditionally focused their efforts to sustain pharmacy services primarily on the vehicle of the PBS. Whilst this has worked reasonably well in the past, the changing methods of health care delivery are increasingly leaving Canberra based pharmacy organizations out of touch with what is happening where the 'action' is, in the states." More...
"Our local hospital's "pharmacy service" is almost 400km away. The pharmacists there seem good at their jobs and terrific people BUT . . . . they're almost 400km away! They service about 120 beds and (wait for it) no less than 23 outlying hospitals like ours. Twenty three! Our hospital pharmacists can manage 1 or 2 visits per year to our town for clinical audit activities - probably quite good in the circumstances - BUT . . . they're mostly still almost 400km away!" More...
There has been some discussion on AusPharmList in the last week or so about the merits of servicing a nursing home. Well, Irwin the evil chemist's back with a vengeance, and he has an opinion on this.... "I finally got the opportunity to put words into actions with owing prescriptions. I refused to do them. There was no way that any patient running short of medication was going to be my fault. The average time for the facility to follow up a medication query was six weeks and even then it was half-arsed or made no sense." More... This features page will be updated with new opinion pieces regularly. Unlike the hard copy publications that publish all their content once each week/fortnight/month we will publish on a rolling basis. Got something to say? Fancy yourself as a features writer? At AusPharm.net.au we are always on the lookout for people with an opinion to express. If you think you fit the bill, contact Mark Dunn to express an interest or to get further information. |
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Prior to commencing her new job in April Veronica Nou had a six week jaunt around Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong and mainland China with a couple of friends. 
Everybody's heard of Botox. What started out as the cause of life-threatening botulism is now a household name for ridding one of wrinkles. 
There aren't many industries left in which legislation places limits on business ownership. There are fewer still in which the limits placed on ownership exist to protect the health of the public - pharmacy is one of these. 
Some time ago, (in December 2004 actually), I wrote an AusPharm feature article entitled "
Bridgekeeper: What... is your favourite colour? 
When pondering my AusPharm topic for this month, I just couldn't get zolpidem off my mind. We have had so many bizarre adverse reactions reported ....well..I just have to share. 
Largely driven by the huge increase in pharmacy graduates in recent years the demand for pharmacist preceptors is at an all time high. There is a real need for more preceptors to be available to both pre-registration students and undergraduate students. More... 
about the need for pharmacists and pharmacy organisation to work more closely with state governments. 
professional indemnity insurers and it keeps our indemnity premiums low, lower than those for most other health professionals. 
"At our local Aboriginal Health Service...the access issues are similar, although less extreme, to those Robbo describes.....Of more immediate concern to me and many other bush pharmacists however, are the entrenched PBS access barriers to aboriginal people. In my town, 80-90% of the 1200 or so local aboriginal people have immediate physical access to my pharmacy and we work very hard to ensure aboriginal people get the same access to services and standard of care as anyone else, but sadly they often don't." More... 
"It is 1.55am in the morning on Tuesday November 15 and the School Fete is tomorrow. My 25th or 26th dozen of home baked biscuits is just going into or out of or through the oven (under, over, beside... one's grasp of all things spatial does tend to fray somewhat by this time of night). A moment of deja vu as I recall the opening scene of a novel I read about 3 years ago - the protagonist gently tapping store-bought mince pies at 1.37am with a rolling pin to "distress" them, the aim being to make them look home-made so she can take them to the school carol concert and hold her head high amongst "the proper mothers, who bake." More... 
"I was idly perusing my always colourful inbox one day recently, when I noticed one of those ubiquitous chain mails people send me in the mistaken belief I want to be a part of whatever it is they're doing. I do in fact often read the darn things, and read thoroughly, just so I can spend the next five minutes of my life cackling hysterically at someone's unabashed stupidity." More... 
read the