Editorial
Welcome to the March edition of i2P – Information to Pharmacists.
You may have noiticed if you receive i2P by email, that we have simplified our mail out presentation.
This was because the code in our earlier version appeared to be too unstable to maintain, hence the simpler presentation.
Columns
Rollo Manning: Pharma-Goss
John Dunlop: Inside NZ
Loretta Marron BSc: Health Watch
Barry Urquhart: Marketing Focus
Harvey Mackay: Strategic Thinking
Mark Neuenschwander: I`ve been thinking about...Recent Comments
Past Editions
Volume 1 Number 1
Volume 1 Number 2
Volume 1 Number 3
Volume 1 Number 4
Volume 1 Number 5
Volume 1 Number 6
Volume 1 Number 7
Volume 2 Number 1
Volume 2 Number 2
Pharma News
Staff Writer: SIGMA Pharmaceuticals suspends share trading before release of revised earnings outlookHospital News
Health Politics
Pat Gallagher: Health Informatics - The State of the Nation
Peter Sayers: The Three-Ring Circus
Dr David More: e-Health IdentifiersEPublications
Pharmacists losing their mojo
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PDF version | Neil Retallick |
Neil Retallick is General Manager, Merchandising, for National Pharmacies, the successful community pharmacy model owned by the Friendly Societies. Neil holds a Graduate Diploma of Marketing from Monash University, is a CPM and a graduate of the AICD.He began his career with Myer Stores Ltd and worked for FMCG companies including TIA (Sheridan) and Pacific Dunlop. Prior to these roles Neil worked for Cadbury Schweppes Drinks Division - Grocery, and Trimex Pty Ltd in Victoria in State management roles. | |
I read some market research recently that ought to concern community pharmacists across the country, as well as the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
Groups of average Australians were brought together for a series of focus groups to discuss the community pharmacy landscape as they see it.
Some of the feedback was disconcerting.
There were two important views shared by these groups. The first was that they felt they had been paying too much for many of the products they have been buying in pharmacies. The emergence of the discount pharmacy, advertising medicines at much lower prices than they had previously been paying, was an indication to them that their own pharmacies had been making too much profit from the medicines these consumers needed to buy.
The second shared view that emerged from the discussions was that the way in which pharmacies have been promoting weight loss solutions was not a good thing. There was a general view that most of the meal replacement products offered by many pharmacies were not a useful weight management tool. A number of people challenged their efficacy and some believed their use was counter-productive – that once their usage stopped the weight problems of those taking them worsened.
What was interesting here was not the discussion about the meal replacement products but the conclusion reached collectively by these groups as an outcome of these two discussions. The view these average Australians shared was that pharmacies were no longer places to go for trusted and objective advice and information regarding personal health issues. Pharmacies today are “… just like other retailers…”. Community pharmacies today are “… focussed on making money...”
I think the “just like other retailers” comment is the most worrying. Within a few weeks the Pharmacy Guild will be making representations to the Government regarding the ways in which community pharmacies across Australia can deliver the healthcare outcomes that the Australian Government is committed to delivering to its constituents. A key proposition of the Guild will be that what community pharmacies can deliver here is different to “… other retailers…”.
The Guild has always been able to galvanise pharmacy users across the nation to demonstrate their view that community pharmacists are the best people in the community to deliver the health outcomes they want. The fact that average Australians are forming the view that community pharmacies are no different to other retailers both puts at risk the Guild’s negotiating position and provides the opportunity for other retailers to step up to the plate. Do I need to say supermarkets?
The Guild has worked very hard over the last 10 years to get its accreditation program – Quality Care Pharmacy Program (QCPP) – adopted by community pharmacies. This program requires a real commitment from pharmacies to the delivery of meaningful and professional healthcare to the communities each accredited pharmacy serves. The concern that emerges from the recent focus groups is that maybe the good work done here is being undermined by the entrepreneurial behaviour being demonstrated in the front of shop?
The price discounting of OTC medicines in recent years proves the claims of Roger Corbett from some years back when he told the Government that Australians were paying too much for their medicines. The embracing of meal replacement products as weight management strategy by many pharmacies has left a bad taste in the mouths of many Australians – there has been too much public debate about the efficacy of these products long term and in the broader health context. The credibility of community pharmacists as professional health carers has been damaged it seems.
Perhaps it is time for the Pharmacy Guild to develop a set of guidelines that are complementary to those in the QCPP, or at least expand on what is already there. There are many community pharmacists that are committed to and focussed on the delivery of professional healthcare. Maybe the Guild can develop an accreditation that identifies these for the average Australian.
Dr Andrew Byrne & Associates: Fatal torsade tachycardia due to methadone either rare or non-existent finds Norwegian study
Neil Johnston: Dispensing errors and criminality
Submitted by Neil Johnston on Sat, 04/07/2009 - 08:40.
Unless there is a form of partitioning within community pharmacy, in terms of both space and people, there will be no meaningful development of clinical services within pharmacy.
Dispensing is a "production line" operation and requires highly structured time.
This tends to squeeze out the unstructured time required for the consultative process required for clinical activities.
Until this concept is recognised and incorporated into a new pharmacy model, I have little hope for professional pharmacy development.
This will also require direct payment to the clinical area, and should not be controlled by the dispensing area.
Why?
Because when resources need to be competed for, guess which side would win?
Freedom of decision making for both sectors needs to be paramount.
Submitted by Geoff Timbs on Fri, 03/07/2009 - 18:05.
What was the research aiming to prove/ disprove? who was the sponsor? what questions were asked? size of sample? what is an average australian? essentially is it a survey that any reasonable conclusion can be drawn from.
Submitted by Guest on Fri, 03/07/2009 - 11:43.
As a community pharmacist, life coach and ayurvedic student, I am wondering how much information and support is given to clients who come in for weight loss products?
The need for psychological support is more important than the actual products purchased in order for clients to get reach their goals not only in weight loss but in all areas of their lives.
If the perception in the community is that pharmacies are out there to make money then it raises the question of staff education and communication as well as having the staff numbers to enable them to spend the time necessary to help the clients/customers.
As a pharmacist, this would be great but in all jobs I have had, the number of staff/staff education has been limited (or the focus has been on targets not customer service) and with regards to myself, the time I have had to spend with customers has been limited due to numbers also.
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