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.

Memories of the Facilitator Program :: Alan Freedman : 2/9/2010 :

Here's another in our series looking back on the beginnings of Home Medicines Review in Australia, this time through the eyes of former Victorian MMR State Facilitator.

"The commencement of the MMR program was a strange experience for pharmacists as we were embarking on a journey that involved a more clinical, collaborative association with the GPs and furthermore, we were going to be paid for it! Nowhere in the world had a system quite like the HMR program been established for us to model our own on, and we were indeed charting new territories in the doctor/pharmacist relationship at the community level.

But as strange as it was going to be for accredited pharmacists to provide a written clinical report to GPs on the medication management of their patients, it was much more so for the facilitators engaged to roll out the program."   More...

The top 7 marketing mistakes that pharmacists make & how to avoid them :: Vanessa Lontos : 24/8/2010 : Have you noticed a slump in your sales? Are you having trouble establishing or differentiating your pharmacy in the market place? Or maybe you’re established, but you just can’t seem to get the word out about new products and services? If these situations sound familiar, then your marketing may be to blame.

The days of relying solely on catalogue promotions, newspaper advertisements and colourful front-window displays are over. In order to grow your businesses in a way that provides consistent results it’s important to appreciate the importance of marketing.

In this second article from CreatingMe Consulting's Vanessa Lontos, we look at the common marketing mistakes pharmacists make, how to avoid them, and how to grow the marketing relationships needed for a healthier business.   More...

Down to the Wire in the Federal Election :: Stephen G. Greenwood : 19/8/2010 : Stephen Greenwood gives AusPharm a final pre-election overview of how the needs of pharmacy are sitting with the different political parties, and how the election is shaping up in the last days of the campaign.

Once again pharmacy has managed to get undertakings out of both political parties which underpin the stability and certainty of pharmacy practice. In the current environment where both major parties have been reluctant to make any policy announcements or visionary projections, the commitments given to pharmacy are real achievements.

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Australia Post and Supply of S8 Medications :: Andrew Roberts : 19/8/2010 : Andrew Roberts, an Auspharmlister working in remote Australia, writes of his encounters, pharmaceutical and otherwise, through his blog, BiteTheDust. Following on from a discussion thread on AusPharmList earlier this year about the problems of posting medications, Andrew has written a neat article capturing the issue and laws regarding posting schedule 8 medicines, which he shares here.

If you live out bush one of the few regular personal contacts you have is with the contractor providing a regular Australia Post, particularly if they arrive at your property by air. The Royal Flying Doctor Service may land regularly for a clinic or perhaps only visit when you are ill.

I want you to imagine that you or a loved one live out bush hundreds of kilometres from the nearest health service or hospital. Perhaps you are dying but want to do it pain free and with dignity at home in your remote community/station. Perhaps you are suffering from severe pain from an injury but you no longer need to be in hospital. Perhaps you have a child with behavioural problems and need a supply of dexamphetamine sent out regularly.

Well according to Australia Post it is just bad luck. They won’t send them to you.   More...

Stakeholders committed, but where are the individual pharmacists? :: PSA National President: Warwick Plunkett : 17/8/2010 : PSA President Warwick Plunkett urges individual pharmacists to participate in shaping the future of pharmacy...

The recent Future of Pharmacy’s Stakeholder Forum proved to be an invaluable exercise in focusing the attention of the major players in the profession on the subject of the future direction of pharmacy.

Perhaps just as importantly, the forum helped to focus our attention on how we can achieve these asipirational goals. The forum was convened by PSA after the release of our Issues Paper on the Future of Pharmacy and was designed to keep the momentum going and to spark further debate on the paper.

I have said before that this important paper is reliant on feedback from the profession so it was disappointing to see the results of a poll in AusPharmList last month which asked how many people had read the Issues Paper.   More...

Pharmacy Services under 5CPA - who wants them? :: Stuart Baker : 16/8/2010 : Do you feel that you’re being badgered from many directions to undertake pharmacy services and if you don’t then community pharmacy is doomed? Stuart Baker shares his views on the value of the 5CPA remunerated pharmacy services.

Recently there have been a number of articles and discussion papers that have echoed that theme as indispensable to the future of pharmacy. Yet many of the services proposed have little or no demand from patients, and pharmacists have not been too keen on them either.

The remunerated pharmacy services under 5CPA are:

1. Fee-for-service: HMRs, RMMRs, MUR (the next stage of PMPs), and Diabetes.
2. Pharmacy Practice Incentives: Clinical Intervention program, Staged supply, Practice incentive and accreditation, and Dose Administration Aid service. (AJP Aug 2010, p.71)

Notice anything about this list?   More...

HMRs - a northern Tasmanian success story :: Anne Todd : 12/8/2010 : In today's follow up to our two pieces last week  (here and here  ) that told the story of the introduction of HMRs into Australian pharmacy / medicine, Anne Todd a Division of General Practice HMR Facilitator in Launceston, Tasmania tells her story.

"I remember my first practice visit as an HMR-NPS facilitator, nervous but confident in my new found knowledge of asthma treatments, excited about the potential for HMR. The response to HMR from those first visits were varied, GPs were interested but cautious about the pharmacist role in what with hindsight has been a groundbreaking initiative - the first of the many collaborative care models becoming common in general practice today."   More...

Call for intelligence & resilience over mandatory CPD :: John Chapman : 10/8/2010 : John Chapman has written to AusPharm before about the introduction of mandatory CPD for pharmacists. In the light of continuings posts to AusPharmList reflecting pharmacists' concerns and misunderstandings, in John's own words he shares his thoughts below with AusPharmListers... "once more, with feeling".

Panic is usually caused by certainty, or part-information. If one is certain that destruction is at hand (i.e. the enemy hordes are visible) then an appeal to a Higher Power may be the only avenue of assistance. Part-information is, however, another matter.

As pharmacists we seem to be detail-focused and time-poor. That’s an explosive mix. Those who are, or who feel they are, time-poor tend to skip the detail – and it’s all downhill from there.

THERE IS SO MUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN PHARMACY PUBLICATIONS, HEALTH PUBLICATIONS AND MANAGEMENT PUBLICATIONS WHICH IS SUITABLE FOR SOME CPD FOR SOME PEOPLE, THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ARGUE THAT 20 CREDITS NOW IS ’A HUGE ASK’ .

The requirements are in line with, or less than, other professions...   More...

MMR Facilitators program does not survive into 5th agreement funding :: Mel Blachford : 5/8/2010 : Mel Blachford shares some of his thoughts on the MMR Facilitators program, which began under the third agreement and continued into the 4th agreement.

"Whilst the MMR Facilitators program has ceased, the HMR and RMMR referrals continue into the 5th agreement. In the future this program will be seen as the catalyst that helped doctors and pharmacists to work together for the good of their patients and better health outcomes. It broke down the barriers."

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The MMR Facilitator Program :: Mike Quaass : 5/8/2010 : The MMR Facilitator Program had a significant impact on changing the nature of pharmacy by providing new opportunities for pharmacists to utilise their specialised knowledge and expertise. It was part of a suite of Medication Management Services negotiated as part the Third Community Pharmacy Agreement in 2000. It built on previous arrangements for delivery of medication reviews. 

It was a complex program requiring the Guild to potentially fund 127 State and Divisional GP organisations, and 8 State Guild Branches. Each of these 135 funding points had their own culture, issues and demography that affected their relationship with other stakeholders and interaction with the Guild.   More...

Keeping an eye to the future - superannuation :: Mark Birrell : 3/8/2010 : In a recent superannuation poll on AusPharm, the highest number of respondents said they were self-employed and had their superannuation planning under control. Does this show a false sense of confidence or are pharmacists more financially savvy than the norm? Mark Birrell, of Guild Financial Planning, discusses superannuation for pharmacy owners, and the possibility of purchasing a pharmacy business property through a self managed super fund.    More...

Issues Papers, Roadmaps and a Vision for Pharmacy's future :: John Jackson : 27/7/2010 : Healthcare is undergoing massive reform in Australia, as it has done recently in other countries, and the pharmacy profession needs a clear picture of where they want to be going. Given the diversity within the pharmacy profession, the specific issues that the profession faces vary depending on who assembles the list, however there are definitely some issues that are common to all pharmacists’ lists.

John Jackson identifies the key broad healthcare reforms taken in other countries, and urges pharmacists in Australia to contribute to the debate to a common vision for the future of Australian pharmacy.   More...

First meeting of therapeutic products promotion working group :: Ken Harvey : 23/7/2010 : A first meeting of the working group convened by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health to address public concern over the promotion of therapeutic products to healthcare professionals and the current self-regulatory codes of conducts, was held in Sydney on 21 July, 2010.

Already disappointment has been expressed by one party for not having a seat at at the table, namely the Complementary Healthcare Council. The CHC point out that although they represent the complementary industry, this doesn't mean their member companies only have low risk products. A few complementary medicines are registered (rather than listed) and considered high risk and so only suited to advertising to healthcare professionals.

Nevertheless, it is encouraging to read the following report from public health expert, Dr Ken Harvey, of a positive and co-operative start by the working group comprising representatives of health professionals, industry sectors and consumers...   More...

Wage incentives disappearing for pharmacy qualifications :: PSA National President: Warwick Plunkett : 22/7/2010 : Comments in AusPharmList recently have raised growing concerns about the disappearing parity between the incomes of pharmacists and the wages of other community pharmacy staff including technicians and pharmacy assistants.

Pharmacists in community pharmacy are seeing an erosion in their real wages which they rightly question given the years of training and other continuing education requirements they undertake and continue to undertake in order to practise their profession.   More...

Tony Abbott - what can pharmacy expect? :: Stephen G. Greenwood : 20/7/2010 : With the federal election set for 21 August, Stephen Greenwood has provided AusPharm with a timely consideration of the contenders for PM and their relationship with pharmacy.

Last week he reflected on Julia Gillard's dealings to date with the pharmacy sector; this week it's Tony Abbott's track record in health, his political style and staff that are examined.

"In contrast to Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott is well known to Community Pharmacy. As one of John Howard’s heavy hitters, he was appointed as Health Minister in September 2003...

...As Health Minister it was never a matter of getting him to understand the Guild’s arguments on ownership or the threat of the supermarkets or other issues, rather, it was a matter of getting him to actually take the time to focus on them before it was too late."
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Julia Gillard - friend or foe? :: Stephen G. Greenwood : 13/7/2010 : With a federal election seemingly about to be called, what sort of a relationship does pharmacy have with Julia Gillard?

In today's feature, former Pharmacy Guild Executive Director Stephen Greenwood, tells us what he thinks. Watch this space next week when Stephen comments on the profession's relationship with alternate Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

"The ruthless excision of Rudd by his colleagues and subsequent whispering campaign about his seemingly endless failings by those who never said boo to a goose when he was the most popular Prime Minister this country has ever had, poses a number of interesting questions.

Chief among these for the pharmacy profession is whether a Gillard led Government or an Abbott led Government will change the nature of relations that pharmacy had with the Rudd Government and had with Rudd personally."    More...

Business Boosting Tips for Your Pharmacy :: Vanessa Lontos : 8/7/2010 : Finding time to work on your business and not just in your business is becoming increasingly difficult for pharmacists.  Supporting customers, managing staff, developing systems  and coming up with new ideas on how to grow the business can be overwhelming, time-consuming and stressful, to say the least. 

In this first article from CreatingMe Consulting's Vanessa Lontos, we look at how you can increase sales whilst still working in the business, takes no extra time and is guaranteed to help your business grow immediately.   More...

Living in the Noughties, a study of locum accommodation :: David Haworth : 6/7/2010 : Reading a new locum retelling a horror tale of substandard accommodation recently on AusPharmList got me thinking about the range of digs I’ve had in the 6 years I’ve been working as a locum after selling my pharmacy in Sylvania in Sydney.

Working two to four weeks away from home at a time I have a few basic requirements - somewhere quiet, self contained with cooking facilities and ironing and washing gear. Bonuses include internet access (not so common) and widescreen TV’s (getting more common).   More...

I'm Confused! :: Gerald Quigley : 29/6/2010 : As I headed into the education sessions at the recent Pharmacy Expo at Darling Harbour, I was pleased to see that Expo staff were scanning the barcodes of each delegate to ensure, I would assume, that appropriate CPE points were entitled to be claimed, and more especially, if you didn’t attend a session, to ensure that you weren’t able to claim those points.

I couldn’t help but think back to APP on the Gold Coast in March. The educational aspects here were quite interesting. Registration at the Conference seemed to allow you to “tick the boxes” of not only those sessions which you actually attended, but additionally, those which you meant to attend but went shopping instead.   More...

Does anybody really understand the skills and knowledge of a practising pharmacist? :: PSA National President: Warwick Plunkett : 24/6/2010 : A major issue facing the pharmacy profession at present is how to project the true role of pharmacists to the public in general, and to government and other stakeholders in particular.

The reality is that today there is a lack of awareness of what we do as a profession and all too often the perception is that pharmacists simply dispense medications. The range of professional services, as well as our preventive and primary health-care roles – to name but a few things - is either ignored or simply not front of mind for most people.

This is a situation which we need to address, and address quickly.   More...

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