Pharmacy wins its own award : 22/12/2008 :

The unique health care role of community pharmacies has been recognised by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in its award modernisation decision handed down on Friday.

Following sustained submissions from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Commission has decided to establish a separate national Pharmacy Industry Award 2010, instead of shifting pharmacy into the Retail Industry Award as originally proposed by the Commission in its September Exposure Draft.

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Poll: should the PBS safety net scheme be reformed? : 22/12/2008 :

In a post to AusPharmList last week, Phillip Smith suggested that the PBS safety net scheme should be replaced by a system in which patients be responsible for maintaining their own records, paying as they go and claiming back anything they pay in excess of the safety net threshhold directly from Medicare. The idea is that  having to pay up front might discourage hoarding.

What do you think? Is this a good idea or does the present system perform well enough? Please let us know what you think by voting in this week's AusPharm poll below.

RGH E-Bulletin: Christmas Edition : 22/12/2008 :

This week's RGH E-Bulletin is the Christmas Edition.

"With glossal appendage firmly implanted in the buccal mucosa, respected medical researchers have announced the formation of a new niche company: HARLOT, specialising in How to Achieve positive Results without actually Lying to Overcome the Truth. Far be it from us at RGH to endorse the proposed techniques (some of which are detailed below, purely for information purposes), but some of the methods for casting a positive spin on clinical trial results have uncanny familiarity for those of us who are called upon to interpret the results of research in the area of clinical therapeutics."

Click here to read the bulletin in full.

The E-Bulletin is archived and previous editions can be viewed on the AusPharm website here.

AusPharm Continuing Education : 21/12/2008 :

Last week's AusPharm CE activity was Issue No 8 of the RGH Pharmacy E-Bulletin CPD Digest. The topics covered in Issue No 8 are:

• Varenicline and mental disorders
• Safety of inhaled bronchodilators in COPD
• Other therapies for prevention/treatment of dementia (part 1)
• Other therapies for prevention/treatment of dementia (part 2)

Click here to do this Continuing Education activity now.

Click here to visit the AusPharm Continuing Education page where there are links to all of our CE activities.

AusPharm gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the sponsors of our CE program, MIMS and The Australian Medicines Handbook.

Kate Carnell appointed to Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency : 19/12/2008 :

Former ACT Chief Minister and Guild National Councilor Kate Carnell, pictured below, was last week appointed to the Board of Directors of the independent Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency. She is one of five new appointees, including former NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge.

The 10 year-old Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency oversees the accreditation of Australia’s nursing homes and hostels. As of June 30, there were 2,830 nursing homes and hostels in Australia caring for more than 170,000 older Australians. 

The Tassie wine goes to WA : 19/12/2008 :

Many thanks to all those 'listers who took advantage of our Christmas special and upgraded to premium membership earlier this month. So strong was the response that not only did we run out of the AusPharm pens that were on offer, we also we also exhausted our supply of calculators.

The pack of three premium Tasmanian wines was won by Western Australian 'lister Ken Stafford, whose name we drew out of the AusPharm hat.

Christmas trade poll result : 19/12/2008 :

This week's poll asked 'listers how Christmas trade was in their pharmacies this year, in the context of the current economic gloom. The result, albeit based on a much smaller than usual response (n=70) suggests that trade is a little down, a lot down in some areas.

We'll repeat this poll after Christmas to see if including the full pre Christmas trading period produces a different result.

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2008 NSW Pharmacy Intern of the Year : 19/12/2008 :

The Saccasan Bailey NSW 2008 Pharmacy Intern of the Year Award has been awarded to Fiona Taylor from the West Gosford Pharmacy for her dedication, passion and “down to earth” approach.

The Saccasan Bailey NSW 2008 Pharmacy Intern of the Year Award recognises the achievements of interns who have demonstrated outstanding skills in the supervised registration training year. It identifies those who are striving to raise standards and who, through their professionalism, provide a model of practice standards.

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Third Round of Funding Available for Rural Pharmacy Projects : 18/12/2008 :

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is inviting submissions for small healthcare projects in rural and remote communities in the third round of available funding.

As part of the Small Project Funding Scheme, grants of up to $20,000 are available for projects that provide health benefits to rural communities and display a capacity to continue these benefits after completion. 

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Fred applauds national e-health strategy : 18/12/2008 :

Fred Health yesterday came out in support of the Australian Government’s new National E-health Strategy, released at the Australian Health Ministers Conference on 12 December.

Paul Naismith, CEO of Fred Health, says, “Fred Health fully supports an approach that sees pharmacists and prescribers taking a major role in advancing e-health in Australia.

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Intern Placements Research Project report published : 17/12/2008 :

The results of a research project, commissioned by the Australian Pharmacy Council, looking at issues around pharmacy student intern placement has now been published.

"Far more pharmacists hold positive views about the preceptor role than hold negative ones";
"While all students can tell negative and positive stories about the experience, there is some evidence that overall their experience is less positive than it might be."

While much speculation has taken place on the availability and long term viability of intern placements and the attitude of preceptors, very little research has been conducted to support theories.

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Poll: how's Christmas trading going? : 17/12/2008 :

In a post to AusPharmList on Monday Christopher Morris wrote: "I don't know what's happening elsewhere but we've broken all sorts of records since the middle of last week." Chris's comment was provoked by a news story "Bleak Christmas ahead for retailers ".

How's Christmas trading in the pharmacy you work in? Bleak? Normal? Up? Please let us know by ticking the relevant box in today's AusPharm poll below.

Most bosses pay for the festive cheer! : 17/12/2008 :

Monday's poll asked 'listers whether or not their pharmacy had a Christmas party and, if it did, who paid.

Seems that Christmas spirit is still very much alive in Australian pharmacies: 96% of pharmacists responding to our poll (n=183) report that theire pharmacy does celebrate Christmas with a party or a dinner. Better still, 88% of bosses foot the entire bill for the event, confirming what we all knew already, that pharmacy bosses are generous folk!

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Telephone interpreting services extended for pharmacies : 17/12/2008 :

Free telephone interpreting services will be extended to pharmacies across Australia on an ongoing basis.

The government's Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) recently conducted a 6 month pilot extension of free telephone interpreting services during which 331 participating pharmacies were provided with unlimited access to telephone interpreting services, 24 hours a day.

The pilot showed that pharmacies using the service found it to be a valuable tool when communicating with non-English speakers and would use it again.

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National eHealth strategy published : 16/12/2008 :

In early 2008 Deloitte was commissioned by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council to develop a strategic framework and plan to guide national coordination and collaboration in E-Health. The Deloitte report has now been published.

The strategy developed adopts a staged approach to developing E-Health capabilities in Australia to allow for existing capability and the underlying variation in capacity across the health sector. It acknowedges the core foundations of a national eHealth system, and identifies priority areas where this can be progressively extended to support health reform in Australia. 

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Bah! More Christmas Paperwork! : 16/12/2008 :

A heads up for readers of AusPharm with small children, who will doubtless be shaking their heads at the latest bureaucratic impost for the month, in the busy run up to Christmas.

Rumour has it Santa has had a visit from a battalion of time and motion consultants, who have recommended he only visit children this year who have lodged a correctly completed Santa Visit Application Form. To make sure the nearest and dearest of our subscribers don't miss out, we've procured for you a leaked copy of the document...

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Poll: Does your pharmacy have a Christmas party / dinner? : 15/12/2008 :

As Christmas gets closer many 'listers will have already attended their pharmacy (department)'s Christmas celebration. Does your pharmacy have a Christmas party / dinner? If so, who pays?

Please let us know by voting in today's AusPharm poll below.

CIS report: an interview with the author : 15/12/2008 :

Last week AusPharm reported  on a Centre for Independent Studies report critical of community pharmacy's 'protected' position in the Australian marketplace. After the report's release Author David Gadiel was interviewed by the ABC's Richard Aedy and the interview aired on ABC Radio's Life Matters program.

You can listen to it (or download an .mp3) here.

RGH E-Bulletin: Other therapies for prevention / treatment of dementia (part 2) : 15/12/2008 :

The topic of this week's RGH E-Bulletin is Other therapies for prevention / treatment of dementia (part 2).

"Following last week’s E-bulletin, further potential approaches are explored in this edition....

......Ginkgo biloba, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins), Hormone therapy (HT), NSAIDs, Vitamin E."

Click here to read the bulletin in full.

The E-Bulletin is archived and previous editions can be viewed on the AusPharm website here.

AusPharm Continuing Education : 14/12/2008 :

This week's AusPharm CE activity is Issue no 8 of the RGH Pharmacy E-Bulletin CPD Digest.

We'll be publishing this activity on Tuesday morning. The topics covered in Issue No 8 are:

* Varenicline and mental disorders
* Safety of inhaled bronchodilators in COPD
* Other therapies for prevention/treatment of dementia (part 1)
* Other therapies for prevention/treatment of dementia (part 2)

We'll be publishing this activity on Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, click here to visit the AusPharm Continuing Education page where there are links to all of our CE activities.

AusPharm gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by the sponsors of our CE program, MIMS and The Australian Medicines Handbook.

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