EDITORIAL for Monday 29 February 2016

Welcome to this week’s edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine dated Monday 29 February 2016.
This week has seen a Sydney compounding pharmacy closed after one of its patients was hospitalised following administration of an intravenous vitamin treatment from its hydration clinic.
The Sydney hydration clinic had opened at the end of January 2016 so it was only a very recent, and isolated event.
The patient presented to the emergency ward of St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney with fever, abdominal pain and low blood pressure.
The cause of the illness is being fully investigated, but the inference is that the clinic was at fault
The Hydration Clinic has been styled as “controversial” by medical media and the original complaint was lodged by our “friend”, associate Professor, Ken Harvey, an executive member of the Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM).

He has used the Sydney incident as the basis for a complaint against the home branch of the same company.
We will be keeping a watch on this complaint because it seems to us at i2P that pharmacists may be being singled out for complaint at every opportunity.
Hydration therapy is not new, compounding pharmacy is the original and respected origin of pharmacy, and provided all the rules have been observed there should be no concerns. There were doctors involved with the clinic but it is not yet clear how they were involved and what responsibility they had.
We note the clinic has been closed despite the fact that the results of the patient investigation have not yet been disclosed.
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner is quoted as saying:
 “the claimed health and medical benefits of hydration clinics remain dubious”.

“The important thing is that medical practitioners who offer these services are registered to do so, use products manufactured under strict standards and adhere to strict requirements surrounding hygiene and infection control,” she says. 

The assumption is obviously that the product may have been contaminated in some way and maybe the administration of the IV fluids may not have been performed by an accredited person.
If either of these assumptions is proven, then we would support the complaint.
Our pharmacy leadership organisations should also be watching and even step in and support the pharmacist involved if she has been practicing in good faith.
The concern I have is that someone’s business can be closed down on suspicion, rather than a proven cause, and a person’s reputation is damaged through skeptic media contacts.
It is coincidental, but we had been working on an in-house project concerning trust, which is relevant to the above issue.
Read: Trust – It Always Has to be Worked at

We also report on an outreach-type innovative service that could work very well using community pharmacy as the management infrastructure, teamed with a range of health and non-health professionals.
It does not rely on government funding but being a registered provider could extend patient benefit. Read: A Pharmacy Clinical Service Model – Innovating and Adapting from Others

We describe the transition pathway that Australian pharmacy seems to be sliding down through the eyes of a senior US community pharmacist.
The US has always been ahead of Australia in general business development, by as much as a decade.
With the advent of the Internet and most pharmacist thinking embracing a global information highway, that period has reduced to a five-year lead.
So read what he has to say because in five year’s time we will all be at the pointy he describes as “now”.
Read: Make the Right Turn at the Next Crossroads

Slowly the message is getting through about how dangerous vaccines and mandated government vaccination programs have become.
And the curious thing is that Ken Harvey and the FSM are strangely silent on this issue.
What about it Ken?
There is more damage occurring here than with genetic tests and hydration clinics
But a US doctor group specialising in pediatrics, formerly a pro vaccination group but now in the safe vaccination group, have come out to recommend a ban on the HPV vaccine.
Dr Judy Wilyman fills in a few of the information and evidence gaps regarding the use of HPV vaccine and mandated vaccination programs.
Read: Japan stopped recommending HPV Vaccines in 2014!

Mark Coleman is back with a follow-up on how the Zika virus is being used to promote a new vaccine for global consumption, albeit that it may be completely unnecessary.
Mainstream media seems not to want to follow and report on the real cause in the form of a Monsanto developed larvicide called pyriproxyfen, which is a growth inhibitor of mosquito larvae. It alters the development process from larva to pupa to adult, thus generating malformations in developing mosquitoes and killing or disabling them.
It is alleged to do similar things to unborn babies.
Read: Murdoch Press Continues to Drive an Alarmist Zika Virus Agenda

Barry Urquhart is back with an article proposing insights as to the way ahead in Australia’s changing economy.
His comments are easily adapted for pharmacy planning.
Read: NAVIGATING THE ROAD AHEAD

Always the optimist, Harvey Mackay talks about the positives of what can happen when you get fired from your job.
It is definitely a blow to the ego but “when the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
Read: Getting fired can be a good thing

And we finish up this week’s offering with media releases from pharmacy leader organisations.
PSA – PSA Media Releases – QUM for Pain Management
NPS – NPS Media Release – Final Days NMS2016 Abstracts

Enjoy your read for this week and post any “Letters to the Editor” in the panel below.

Neil Johnston
Editor i2P E-Magazine
Monday February 29 2016