Call for Small Rural Project Grant Project applications : 30/09/2008 :

Applications have been invited for the Rural Pharmacy Workforce Program Small Project Funding Scheme.

The Small Project Funding Scheme is an initiative of the Rural Pharmacy Workforce Program (RPWP). It is intended to support the role of community pharmacists in rural and remote communities so that innovative ideas and services can be developed and implemented.

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BP medication compliance study funded : 30/09/2008 :

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, with the endorsement of the National Heart Foundation,is to trial a community pharmacy service to monitor compliance with blood pressure medicines.

The study, involving over 60 community pharmacies, aims to identify patients who will receive the most benefit from the service. The project also aims to develop an intervention package to be delivered by community pharmacists with the hope of improving medication compliance.

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Big Pharma educational events measure up : 30/09/2008 :

The Medicines Australia (MA) half-yearly report of member companies’ educational events found that of 15,836 educational events sponsored or provided by pharmaceutical companies, all but 21 fully comply with the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct.

The 21 events identified by the Code Monitoring Committee as potentially breaching the Code have been referred to the independent Code of Conduct Committee for a final determination.

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New QCPP TV ad : 30/09/2008 :

A new community service announcement advocating the customer benefits of the Quality Care Pharmacy Program will be launched this week during  Ask Your Pharmacist Week 2008. You can see it here.

Ask Your Pharmacist Week 2008 also sees the  commencement of voting for the 2008 Pharmacy of the Year People’s Choice. Details of Ask Your Pharmacist Week 2008 as well as resources for pharmacies are available at the website (here).

Guild ACT Branch celebrates 20 years : 29/09/2008 :

The ACT Branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia celebrated its 20th birthday at a celebration dinner in Canberra last Thursday night.

One of the high points of the night was the awarding to Bill Arnold of the highest award the Guild can bestow, Honorary Life Membership of the Guild.

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(UK) Pharmacy advice 'frequently poor' : 29/09/2008 :

Here's a story that will be eerily familiar to 'listers.

UK consumer advocate Which? (Aus --> CHOICE) has conducted a 'mystery shop' survey of pharmacies in the UK and found 'unsatisfactory' advice was given a third of the time. 

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Lunch-break? What's that? : 26/09/2008 :

This week's poll confirmed what we all knew anyway, that pharmacists don't get a lunch break.

Sorry, overall 22% of us do and, if you're a hospital pharmacist (54%) or a consultant pharmacist (67%) the odds are much better you'll get a lunch break. However, if you're a pharmacy owner your chances of getting a decent break from the front line drop to 15%.

AusPharm, who's worked in pharmacies for 30 years, can't see an easy solution to the 'lunch-break' problem. Watch this space early next week when we'll have a look at some of the OH&S (and patient safety) implications of this.

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PSA issues paracetamol advice : 26/09/2008 :

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has published advice for members on how to handle customer enquiries about paracetamol use in children and the subsequent development of asthma.

PSA Vice President Dr Shane Jackson said, "We need to be practical about the approach that we take with these kind of 'new' findings. We should try and give parents useful information regarding the use of paracetamol in children, and this should be, as with all medicines, that it should be used judiciously, when there is likely to be a benefit for the child, such as the reduction of high fever or pain."

You can read the full statement here.

Poll: who has a lunch break? : 25/09/2008 :

Every 12 months or so the issue of whether or not pharmacists get a lunch break gets a run in one or other of the pharmacy publications. This happened recently when Pharmacy News reported on the 13th annual remuneration survey conducted by the Pharmacist Division of APESMA.

This week's AusPharm poll asks 'listers to help us find out how it is for them. We'd like to see if we can get some detail so please make a special effort to tick the relevant box below.

Blackmores appoints new CEO : 25/09/2008 :

Blackmores yesterday announced the appointment of Christine Holgate, pictured below, as its new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

Ms Holgate comes to Blackmores from a career background in sales, marketing, communication and finance. Her last position was as Executive Director Sales and Channels, Telstra Business.

She will commence in her new role before the end of 2008 on an initial salary package of $600k p/a.

Guild grieves for former Communications chief : 25/09/2008 :

Former Guild National Communications Director, Peter Leonard, has died in Canberra, aged 63.

Mr Leonard, pictured at left, retired from his Communications Consultant role at the Guild’s National Secretariat in 2003, but maintained a close personal and professional relationship with the Guild in recent years.  This included continuing master of ceremonies duties at important Guild functions and conferences.

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Public to get a say on PBS listings : 25/09/2008 :

Consumers will now be able to comment on medicines being considered for listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced yesterday that Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) meeting agendas will be made publicly available six weeks before each meeting is held.

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NSW Board prods pharmacists on CMIs : 24/09/2008 :

In its recent Bulletin X to registered pharmacists in NSW the Pharmacy Board of NSW has re-iterated to pharmacists what is expected of them with the provision of Consumer Medicines Information to patients.

Board President Gerard McInerney, pictured at right, reminded pharmacists of Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Senator Jan McLucas's, comments at the APP conference in March that her personal experience and that of her staff was that CMIs were not always being provided in accordance with PBS reqyuirements.

The Board points out that providing CMIs is essential to promoting quality use of medicines and that withholding a CMI on the basis that this is in the patient's best interests is not a course of action to be undertaken lightly.  Pharmacy professional insurer, PDL, has cautioned against withholding a CMI unless the pharmacist has formed an opinion that the patient's physical or mental health may be harmed by information contained in a CMI, that the pharmacist has discussed the possible risks with the prescriber and has consulted their insurer on the relevant circumstances.

Pharmacy respect : 24/09/2008 :

This landed in the AusPharm inbox yesterday (thanks Robbo!). While we've had a look at it before it's good enough to warrant a rerun. Click the screen to watch.

Debbie Rigby joins NPS Board : 24/09/2008 :

Brisbane-based consultant clinical pharmacist, Debbie Rigby, is now an National Prescribing Service (NPS) director, replacing Guild Divisional Director, Jenny Bergin, the previous Pharmacy Class director, on the Board. Ms Rigby joined the NPS Board on 24 August and attended her first Board meeting on 19 September.

NPS CEO, Dr Lynn Weekes said that Ms Rigby's appointment to the NPS Board is a significant acknowledgement of the increasingly important role of pharmacists in health promotion and the promotion of the quality use of medicines in the community.

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SIGMA releases half year results : 23/09/2008 :

SIGMA Pharmaceuticals yesterday released half year results for the period ending July 31, 2008.

Earnings before income tax were up 29% on the corrsponding period for 2007. Net profit after tax was also up as was earnings per share. Details are available on the ASX website (here) and on SIGMA werbsite (here).

Managine Director Elmo de Alwis said that "the business is [now] well positioned to generate strong returns to shareholders".

Repeat reminders vis SMS : 22/09/2008 :

Australian company eClinic has developed a communication platform for pharmacies which provides the means for pharmacists to send owing and last repeat script requests to GPs and specialists, and repeat reminders to patients via SMS.

After working primarily with the electronic delivery of pathology results for the past 7 years, eClinic has established a secure online network which delivers close to 1 million pathology results monthly to over 2500 medical and veterinary clinics across Australia.

The pharmacy tool, called eClinic Pharmacy, interfaces and extracts data from major dispensing systems for review within the eClinic Pharmacy application interface.

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New requirements for child resistant packaging published : 19/09/2008 :

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) recently published Therapeutic Goods Order No. 80, whose objective is to set particular requirements for the packaging of medicines that may present a significant risk of toxicity to children if accidentally ingested.

These requirements relate to child resistant packaging - that is, packaging that is designed to be resistant to opening by young children.

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CPA4 funded research project to examine compliance : 19/09/2008 :

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Advisory Practice to undertake an 18 month pharmacy practice research project focused on the complex issues of medication compliance.

The trial, which will include over 100 pharmacies, will focus on developing and evaluating strategies that assist people who have poor medication compliance based on accurate identification of differing types of non-compliance.

It will investigate possible indicators and causes for non-compliance and propose specific patient-centred approaches tailored to address these causes. The research team will also explore linkages with existing professional services such as Dose Administration Aids, Patient Medication Profile and Home Medicines Review.

Poll result: staffing the new pharmacy professional programs : 19/09/2008 :

This week's AusPharm poll asked 'listers to comment on whether they have sufficient pharmacist staff to provide the new professional pharmacy programs funded by CPA4 (eg DAAs, PMP, DMAS).

While the results portray a mixed bag, if you like, it seems that most pharmacies are trying to make do with existing staff and are struggling. Why are pharmacies trying to make do with what they have? We don't know but perhaps Peter Crother's post today provides some insight into this.

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