The Pharmaceutical Society has come out of hiding and expressed again their ongoing concerns about the quality and control of complementary medicines in Australia.
They have a crack at the TGA once again, and imply that pharmacists are unprofessional if they support the sale of these products in a pharmacy setting.
If they have the evidence that it is unprofessional to stock these products, then issue an edict to that effect, have the offending products removed from shelves, and show some leadership instead of pandering to the whims of academia, which has a focus on the process and ignores the wishes of the patient.

Does PSA give professional leadership in this case, or not? Are they representing the majority of the hard-working health practitioners across Australia?

Pharmacists have the opportunity to intervene in the health and welfare of their patients where nutritional insufficiencies are detected, or nutritional support across the board is needed.

Sadly, this type of nonsense encouraged me to cease membership of PSA after nearly 50 years of continual membership, first as a student then as a Community Pharmacist. Interestingly, there has been follow-up as to why I didn’t renew.

I guess when membership by default is strong, you don’t have to be concerned if a few drop away.

Added to that is the bizarre behaviour of a guerilla group seeking to undermine the professional integrity of our profession. This group seems to want to become the guardians of the profession. To imply that sales are made without any concerns about the patient is a disgrace. They are looking for “whistleblowers”! Pardon me?

Is this 2017 – the time of holistic patient care, of integration, of engagement, of patient concern, of re-establishing our place in the healthcare team after we’ve been hijacked by those with no regard to our patients?

We seem to be besotted with “pleasing” so many others that our patients are confused. Where’s the care? Where’s the advice?

Perhaps the time has come for specialist complementary health care outlets, staffed by a pharmacist skilled in other modalities, forging close ties with local naturopaths, homeopaths, iridologists and chiropractors as there are professionals like chiropractor Strathfield that help a lot in this area.

Now that would be an absolute winner!