Generic medicines messages target Chinese and Italian communities : 14/01/2009 :

The third phase of the National Prescribing Service's (NPS) Generic medicines are an equal choice campaign will begin on 1 February with targeted messages to seniors in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Community service announcements and interviews with health professionals will be broadcast in Cantonese, Mandarin and Italian on SBS and other community-language radio stations across Australia, while printed in-language resources are being developed in partnership with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) and will be available in mid March.

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Weight loss shakes; backed by evidence? : 12/01/2009 :

On Friday we reported  on rural GP David Monash's spray on pharmacy published in that days's Crikey Time to put pharmacists under the microscope.

Also in Crikey that day was a piece by lawyer and author of Sweet Poison, 'a book exposing the danger of fructose', David Gillespie.

Gillespie argues that there is clear evidence that the use of weight loss shakes containing fructose, available in most pharmacies under a range of brand names, actually causes an increase in weight. "Which makes me wonder why pharmacies in Australia are quite happy to endorse and sell weight-loss shakes." he writes.

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ACPPM president honoured : 12/01/2009 :

National President of The Australian College of Pharmacy Practice and Management, Trevor Clarkin, was honoured recently at the Annual Queensland Fellows’ Dinner, held on the 2nd of December 2008, with elevation to the status of Fellow (Honoris Causa).

Trevor, pictured at left, who is the General Manager of Gold Cross, a Pharmacy Guild subsidiary, was Qld Chapter Chair then National President of the Australian Institute of Pharmacy Management from 1998 until the Institute merged with the College in 2004. He has been National President of the College since 2004.

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Poll: declining to supply Mersyndol (or clone) : 12/01/2009 :

Every pharmacist working in community pharmacy will at times have let out a deep (but quiet) sigh on hearing the words 'a packet of Mersyndol please', particularly when hearing it for the 34th time at the end of a long day.

Mersyndol (and clones) is a Pharmacist Only medicine and, as such, should only be supplied when it is therapeutically appropriate. AusPharm wonders how often a request for supply is declined. Please let us know about your experience in today's poll below.

Silly season anti pharmacy story Number 2 : 09/01/2009 :

Following on from the curious Financial Review piece published last week The Amazing Power of Australia's Chemists (see AusPharm 30/12  ) yesterday's Crikey ran another pharmacy bashing piece by 'Dr David Monash, a rural GP in Victoria' titled Time to put pharmacists under the microscope.

It is a muddled and simplistic piece that attempts to paint pharmacists as exploiting consumers with rampant generic substitution that "cause[s] patient confusion and medication error" with the main beneficiary being the pharmacist (we can perhaps forgive Dr Monash for confusing pharmacy with pharmacist as his meaning is clear enough).

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Guild rejects Revive Clinic nurse practitioner prescribing scheme : 09/01/2009 :

According to the Pharmacy Guild the corporate push to bestow Medicare funding and prescribing rights on nurse practitioners, as detailed in The Australian newspaper yesterday (here) would be a backward step for Australia’s health system.

The model being pushed by the Revive Clinic chain is similar to the Minute Clinics located inside many CVS pharmacies in the USA. The Guild argues that such clinics are inappropriate and unnecessary in Australia because of the inclusion in the Australian medicines scheduling system of Pharmacy Medicines and Pharmacist Only Medicines.

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Poll result: pharmacists do still make extemps : 09/01/2009 :

Yesterday's poll tried to get a sense of how prevalent the dispensing of extemporaneously prepared prescriptions is in 2009.

To AusPharm's slight surprise 45% of respondents (n=98) say they've dispensed an extemp in the last week with a further 32% doing so in the last month.

We suspect there may be a degree of polarity amongst pharmacies with some pharmacies doing quite a bit of extemp dispensing (the so called Compounding pharmacies) and others doing next to none. Click the link to see the results in detail.

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Safety Net now recognises couples living apart, same sex couples : 08/01/2009 :

From 1 January 2009, couples living separately due to illness, infirmity or frailty (eg. for nursing care or in a residential or aged care facility) can access PBS Safety Net benefits jointly as a family in the same manner as if they were living together.

From 1 January 2009, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) Safety Net families can include same-sex de facto partners.

Poll: extemporaneous dispensing : 08/01/2009 :

Times have changed. Whereas once upon a time most of a pharmacist's working day was spent in making mixtures, creams, lotions and all manner of other concoctions it's a rare thing in most pharmacies in 2009. How rare?

This week's poll has a go at finding out. When was the last time you dispensed an extemp? Please tick the relevant box in today's poll and we'll see if we can get a sense of how things sit in 2009. (NB: This poll will only run for 24 hours so you'll ed to vote today - we'll publish the result tomorrow.)

Poll: frequency of dispensing errors : 07/01/2009 :

This week's AusPharm poll tried to get  a sense of how often dispensing errors** are made. If the results are typical of the pharmacy community as a whole and with 191 respondents to this poll we think they probably are, the answer is that errors are made fairly often, certainly more often than we were expecting.

43% of respondents have made an error within the last month and 69% within the last 3 months. To our knowledge very few of these end up as complaints to the Pharmacy Boards or as incident reports to PDL suggesting that the 'damage control' pharmacies do after making an error is good. Equally interesting to AusPharm is the 19% who haven't made an error in the last 12 months. If any of this group would like to pass on their secrets, we'd love to hear them!

Click the link to see the results in detail.

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New generic medicines ancillary label here to stay : 07/01/2009 :

The new ancillary label designed as part of the Generic medicines are an equal choice campaign is to be included as an alternate label 15 in the 21st edition of the Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary and Handbook.

The label was designed in consultation with the PSA, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, practicing community pharmacists and consumers as part of the 2008 NPS Generic Medicines are an Equal Choice campaign. The APF Editorial Board has agreed to include it in the 21st edition of the APF handbook, which is due out in early 2009.

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Guild Group appoints new director : 06/01/2009 :

The Guild Group has added the experienced Mr. George Venardos to its Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2009.

Mr. Venardos has more than 29 years experience in financial services with his most recent role being Group Chief Financial Officer of IAG, from which he retired in August 2008.

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I am the very model of a psycho - pharmacologist : 05/01/2009 :

Thanks to Andrew Roberts for finding this one. It's dedicated to Chris Alderman. Click the image to play the song.

Poll: I last made a dispensing error..... : 03/01/2009 :

AusPharm oftens wonders just how frequently dispensing errors are made. While today's poll won't tell the whole story we'd still be interested to know when you made your last dispensing error.

For this poll we'll define an 'error' as 'wrong drug' or 'wrong directions on label' that actually leaves the dispensary (but not necessarily the pharmacy). Please tick the relevant box in today's poll below.

Financial Review goes after the Guild : 02/01/2009 :

In a curiously timed and very long article (The Amazing Power of Australia's Chemists) the Dec 30 - Jan 4 Weekend Edition Financial Review takes a big swipe at the Pharmacy Guild.

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Poll result: yes, we do label neatly in our pharmacy : 31/12/2008 :

96% of us (n=156) do, anyway.

AusPharm admits to being one of the 'mostly' respondents, In light of the advice provided by our peers we'll see if we can transmogrify into an 'absolutely'.

Click the link to see the result in detail.

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The man from Kaomagma : 31/12/2008 :

In a weak moment and in the spirit of the 'silly season' AusPharm invited 'listers to send along posts that didn't meet our usual 'pharmacy relevant' criteria and  might be 'interesting or quirky or just plain weird'.

Well, Sydney pharmacist Bruce Moffat (that's him at right) sent along this epistle in response, gratuitously including his preliminary comments:

"Silly? You want silly? I'm your man
Happy almost New Year
That Anon produced some good work and this isn't one of them but it certainly meets your January editorial standards.
Sort of Henry Lawson meets Pam Ayres.
A little bit cultural and a lot bit silly and not very PC.  Perfect!"

Thanks Bruce!

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Nembutal: the gentle sedative.... : 30/12/2008 :

People were much more relaxed about what medicines they gave children in the 'good old days'.

Click the image to see a larger version. It was harvested from here.

Younger 'listers (with no experience with Nembutal) can find out more aboyut the drug here and here.

Dr John Eden named in US Senate inquiry : 29/12/2008 :

'Listers may have seen recent news reports relating to a US Senate investigation into whether big pharmaceutical firms allegedly are paying ghostwriters to write journal articles favourable to their products.

Sydney academic Dr John Eden has been mentioned in reports about the inquiry (eg here). Dr Eden is an associate professor at the University of NSW and is the director of the Sydney Menopause Centre.

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Poll: we label neatly in our pharmacy : 29/12/2008 :

Back when AusPharm was a pre-reg (1979) our first employer was insistent that we label dispensed medicines neatly: "It's they only thing the punters have to judge your competence by" (this was in the days before pharmacists "counselled" on dispensed medicines).

What is the policy in the pharmacy (department) you work in. Please let us know by voting in the week's AusPharm poll below.

Click here to go to the old "Industry News" page (pre 01/09/2006).