Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine dated Monday 10 July 2017.
The King Review has not been favourably received by pharmacists of all description, and i2P has advanced its analysis of the interim review to the extent that we believe it is near time to evacuate the “troops” from the clutches of the PBS.
As we have pointed out for some time now, the PBS (as a product) is at the end of its life-cycle.
The King Review is suggesting ways to strangle it completely (particularly the flat fee for dispensing) so pharmacists must now collectively move to the view of not wasting any further resources (financial or human) in trying to prop up this moribund model.
It must be abandoned so that you can profitably move forward with a private model.
An opportunity did exist within the Review structure to exchange PBS services for an expansion of services involving public health utilising the structure of a public/private partnership.
Instead, pharmacists have been told by King that they are government agents, meaning that government sees itself as owning your dispensary practice!
In an article published by the Guardian, fake news journalist Mark Metherill actually states that the Pharmacy Guild made the statement that pharmacists were government agents.
Concurrent with the interim report of the King Review you see the emergence of Sue Dunlevy (and others like Mark Metherill) spreading fake news in the mainstream media (MSM).
i2P believes that the media threat of continuing adverse pharmacy reporting will intensify and efforts by leadership bodies representing pharmacists (trying to create balance) will be pushed “under water”.
i2P did suggest earlier that there would be merit in publishing a “house” newspaper representing a broad cross-section of pharmacy news that could be delivered to the Australian population through its 5500 pharmacies nationally.
We believe that this is now an essential service required to protect the reputation of pharmacy and provide an accurate source of health information that would be trusted by Australians.
As i2P believes also that government is moving to enable global pharmacy corporates to take over Australian pharmacy, efforts to establish a community pharmacy controlled patient benefit manager operation should commence immediately, given that there is a lead-time available and that this entity should replace the PBS system to provide a better alternative for our patients.
i2P has already researched this type of infrastructure and will share this information with any pharmacist individually or as an organisation representative when decisions begin to be made.
Since our last edition we have seen the explosion of bitterness and bile directed at the AMCAL group in providing private pathology services for mainly wellness patients.
The AMA and the RACGP have emerged in a cartel-like format that i2P believes should eventually invite an investigation by the ACCC as a restraint of trade.
The venomous attack is really directed at the entire profession of pharmacy and it is pleasing in one sense, that pharmacists did not capitulate – only the contracted pathology group collapsed under pressure of the medical cartel, because they had the most to lose.
The wellness market is outstripping the illness management market as knowledgeable pharmacists would already know.
This is a concern to the medical cartel and their global pharma paymasters.
With diagnostic aids, the wellness market would become a more evidence-based model and would gain more industry and government investment.
With the medical profession being wedded to the illness-management health model and having minimal experience in health service legitimate competition, they try to expand their control of other health initiatives through cartel-type methods
i2P believes that these recent events represent an opportunity to develop a pharmacy-controlled pathology service in a stripped-down capacity that bypasses the intervention policy of the medical cartel while simultaneously bonding pharmacists in all capacities to unify against the external “enemy”.
Pharmacy leaders have an opportunity to lead, and hopefully do a better job by organising themselves through this rare opportunity presented by the medical cartel.
i2P has always suspected that collaboration would be a difficult and almost impossible task with the medical profession.
How can you respect the unprofessional behaviour that has been exhibited?
Our lead article for this edition concerns the rift that has opened up between pharmacy and the medical profession.
This is not a simple spat between two health professions.
The Australian branch of the medical cartel has actually declared war on the Australian pharmacists who were daring to provide pathology services to underpin the broader offering of wellness services, basically embraced under an integrative medicine model being developed by the AMCAL pharmacy franchise.
The derogatory style and abrasive nature of the language employed left no doubt as to the intention of the medical leaders involved.
It was a declaration of war!
The broad objectives of this war from the cartel perspective (and the cartel has extensions into mainstream media and global drug companies) are to prevent pharmacists competing with doctors (in their eyes) by improving diagnostic skills.
The reality is that pharmacy is preparing to offer wellness solutions as a primary market thrust, with illness management (particularly chronic illness) having a lesser emphasis.
Doctors, in comparison, have made their bed in the illness management camp that is financially subsidised by global pharma’s to such an extent that government has legislated that a record of payments be kept in an open register.
As the wellness market is rapidly expanding, the medical cartel sees the need to subjugate pharmacists to the role of passive “hand-maidens”.
Pharmacist leaders did not capitulate to the initial onslaught, but must now prepare for a long-drawn out guerrilla campaign, avoiding full-frontal attacks.
Collaboration was just assassinated in plain sight.
Read: Pathology Services – Better Options for Community Pharmacy
Gerald Quigley comments on how the King Review is everything it ought not to be.
It is distorting a future for Australian pharmacists while trying to bankrupt community pharmacy in its entirety.
Gerald has also independently noticed the chorus of “fake media” stories creating an “echo chamber” of adverse and dishonest comment to amplify negativity against pharmacy.
And in the shadows the interests of global drug companies can be seen to be promoted.
Read: King & Complementary Medicines
Manipulated (fake) news is so commonplace that public trust in mainstream media is fast disappearing. Manufactured news is one step further where fictitious news is circulated as fact. This is a serious problem because it is corruption at its epicentre. As the “fourth estate” of democracy it is no longer working. Having major global corporates as dominant shareholders (particularly global drug companies) mainstream media appears to service their interests first, abandoning any sense of professional journalism, honesty and decency. Jon Rappoport is a professional journalist who has virtually left the ranks of mainstream media to support the growing army of independent publishers. He is well equipped to illustrate the different forms of fake news while Mark Coleman illustrates examples.
Read: Ten forms of fake news used by major media
Being unselfish used to be part of being an Australian – always willing to help out a “mate”. In business culture coupled with the rise of globalism, selfishness has become more prominent and our culture has suffered.
Pharmacy culture has suffered alongside our national culture but it is most prevalent in medical culture when you look at the issue of pharmacy-initiated pathology services for patient benefit.
The medical profession, by demonstrating extreme selfishness in this issue (and many others) are losing respect and simultaneously losing their claim to be the “gateway” to health systems.
Harvey Mackay provides the base material in demonstrating a state of being unselfish.
Read: To be a winner … be unselfish
Barry Urquhart provides a window for his readers to view the entire panorama of business cultures, both locally and globally. Pharmacist readers will have the opportunity to share in his insights and solutions and adapt them to the narrower lens of pharmacy culture.
In so doing, innovation becomes a possibility depending on the reader’s natural abilities and formal training to adapt the knowledge provided to the model they are building that is unique to them.
Much like the coaches on the TV shows promoting talented new singers when they say “make the song your own – don’t try to imitate the original version as an exact replica.”
In this current series of essays the standout essay on winning wars should resonate, as the medical cartel have declared war on pharmacy and they need to be taught a lesson.
Read: Marketing Focus – Essays on Management, Marketing & Business Strategies
There is something wrong with Australia’s public health policy, in particular the policies pertaining to vaccines.
Daily, these policies are exposed as being biased and unsafe.
Yet our politicians and medical health leaders pretend to remain blind to unsafe practices.
“First do no harm” as the foundation of all medical practice now has a hollow ring to it with the medical profession exhibiting cartel behaviour and public confidence is further eroded as the public find they have little choice in being able to refuse a vaccine they have inadequate knowledge about.
Any queries on vaccine safety are aggressively disposed of and the complainant labelled “anti Vaxer”- no voice at all for “safe vax”.
The safe vaccination debate is continued here, despite the fact that it is not recognised by the extreme pro and anti-vax participants.
The pro-vax proponents sustain their immoral position with dishonest tactics and communications.
The anti-vax proponents also hold extremist views because vaccination principles are generally sound.
It is the manufacturers supported by a medical cartel, that are the real villains in this drama because they continue to make and promote unsafe vaccines and develop new vaccines without any formal evidence.
It is also obvious that vaccination does not equate to immunisation!
Read: Safe Vaccine Debate 1. WHO Faux Pas About Adverse Events & Deaths 2. Dr Judy Wilyman Report – ABC Misreporting 3. Elizabeth Hart’s Overvaccination Report: Ethics, Conflict of Interest, GSK & Meningococcal B Vaccination
WHO has made a statement saying that cannabis should be decriminalised world-wide because existing laws cause health discrimination.
In Australia, patients are being actively discriminated against as police are instructed to enforce existing laws and close down “illegal” supplies, leaving some critically ill people with no workable solutions for their health problems.
Flawed health policy generates bad laws and lowered community respect for policy and laws.
Yet again, Pharmacy is in a position to provide solutions very simply and simultaneously create opportunity for the profession to treat chronically ill patients efficiently and economically.
Pharmacy leaders need to be proactive in the regulatory area because other health professionals are actively competing to lock pharmacy out of any opportunity whatsoever Potential for pharmacists is found in the compounding of THC and CBD in specific ratios to match the best result for patients with chronic illness.
Further pharmacist potential also lies in using cannabinoids in harm minimisation programs involving opioid dependencies and as an adjunct for the management of pain.
Pharmacists also need to be active and have a voice in the regulation of these substances ensuring that maximum patient access can be obtained through the application of Schedule 3 of the Poison’s Act.
Read: Understanding Medical Cannabis 1. Marijuana Legalisation & Car Accident Rates 2. Sydney Criminal Lawyers – Arrests for Possession of Medical Cannabis 3. WHO Statement Calls For Decriminalisation of Drugs
And we complete our offering for this edition by publishing media releases from two pharmacy leadership organisations.
We hope you enjoy the content in this edition and please don’t hesitate to post any comment (for or against) in the panel provided at the foot of each article.
Neil Johnston,
Editor, i2P E-Magazine
Monday July 10, 2017