Welcome to the weekly edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine, dated 13 April 2015.
Well, this week it’s a case of whether you want to start with the good news or the bad news.
Given a choice, the good news should take preference, so here we go….
In a surprising move the PSA has launched an initiative in partnership with eight industry partners to position community pharmacies as Health Destination Pharmacies.
The project will form up to position the pharmacist as a primary health care provider and i2P congratulates the PSA on creating this initiative.
We have been writing on this theme for a long time.
Dr Alison Roberts did some of the preliminary work in an earlier study illustrating the positive impact that a forward pharmacy has on patient numbers and profit base in a community pharmacy.
Building on this study it should be feasible to focus the pharmacist back into the core business of a pharmacy to be supported with income that is non PBS denominated.
This is really good news!
No doubt we will see the design and construction for a “home” for the forward pharmacist, possibly in the form of a “Health Bar” as written up recently in an article titled Pharmacy Inertia is Crippling Pharmacy – Build Clinical Spaces and Move Into Your Local Area Market Plan .
That’s a good starting point.
We have extended some design thoughts in an article in this edition titled New Paradigm Pharmacy Design so that may start the creative juices flowing at a faster rate.
If not read Harvey Mackay’s article on A great sense of humor makes great sense to kick-start your project.
I2P always positions itself into the future and does original research to continually “flesh out” a workable model of pharmacy that is both productive and satisfying.
One of those concepts is 3D-Printing, so we have prepared an article to initiate pharmacists in to the potential for this new technology to be both disruptive and be able to create major advances in pharmacy service provision.
Read Embrace and Plan for the Future of 3D Drug Printing .
The good news is that if pharmacists can quickly embrace and educate themselves in this technology they will reach the new paradigm in pharmacy very quickly and the sky can be the limit.
If this technology is wrested from pharmacy control and not supported politically by pharmacy leadership organisations, then it will enable other hostile groups to further fragment the core business of pharmacy.
It needs to become the centre of a Health Destination Pharmacy and become firmly embedded.
Pharmacy won’t pass up that opportunity….will it?
I hate the concept of conspiracy theories and hope that something like that never emerges.
But I can’t shake the feeling that the bad press directed at pharmacy is just such an instance.
Whenever something does not feel right, it is usually political with the real agenda hidden.
And always it involves large sums of money and the power that money can buy.
So we have written some thoughts on the subject in an article titled Tuning out the “noise” – but it’s action time! and it’s pleasing to think that pharmacy’s direction can , and will, be less reliant on government funding into the future.
The vaccination warfare between pro and anti “vaxers” has taken a new shift involving government intervention through punitive action against a small minority of Australia’s population.
It represents 1.7% of the total population which has registered as conscientiously objecting to being vaccinated or having their children vaccinated.
I find that the actions being taken by the Abbott government seem to be very undemocratic (true democracy protects its minorities doesn’t it?).
I also see the same set of “talking heads” that set out to crucify the gentle discipline of homeopathy (soft on science but never harmful) vilifying people who wish to exercise their basic human right to not inject what they perceive as unsafe medications into their own or their children’s bodies (vaccination is also soft on science but can be very harmful in some instances).
This has all the hallmarks of a prolonged and bitter debate that seems to also heading for, and to be part of, the conspiracy involving the bad media of pharmacy.
Pharmacy has not yet reached a point of vitriol in the vaccine debate, but early shots portray us as being not quite so qualified as the doctors and nurses we are accused of supplanting and all the money we supposedly make.
Read Government Vaccination Policy – Research Uncovers Anomalies and Vaccines – the Controversies Continue .
Whatever your point of view, it is obvious to i2P that a lot of information on this subject has been hidden, suppressed or distorted and we will do our best to provide the best of information on this subject.
Again politics, money and power intersect with vaccines to become the new “blockbuster” segment for Pharma.
And given that pharmacists now have the authority to provide vaccination services, will it prove to be a poisoned chalice?
In a change of pace we have an article by new i2P author John Cook titled A Tale of an Aspiring Medication Specialist.
For sure, he is the type of pharmacist that should be nurtured in a Health Destination Pharmacy.
And finally we have media releases from PSA and ASMI.
There is a lot of material to digest this week, so happy reading.
Neil Johnston
Editor
13 April 2015