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EDITORIAL for Monday 23 March 2015
Welcome to this weeks edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) dated 23 March 2015. I started researching new material for this edition when I received the first article contribution written by John Cook and titled Pharmacy Guild of Australia is no friend of Community Clinical Pharmacists – ANAO. Knowing that the ANAO report was an…
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Pharmacy Guild of Australia is no friend of Community Clinical Pharmacists – ANAO
On the 5th of March a report by the Australian National Audit Office was tabled in Federal Parliament with 257 pages of analysis into the administration by the Department of Health of the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement (5CPA). I am not someone who reads these reports every day, but even to my untrained eye there…
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Unprecedented Attacks on PGA Post-ANAO Report
“Australian pharmacy is in a death throe whether you are an accredited consultant or a community pharmacist and the PGA has been the spectacular lobbying body that has brought us to this point.” This is just a sample of one of the many comments currently circulating since the publication of the ANAO audit report after…
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Doctor Groups and CHF Deliver Collective Criticism of Pharmacy
About forty years ago I found myself in a vigorous debate with Greg Haines, the pharmacy historian. He made the claim that pharmacy had never initiated major changes to its professional foundations and that such change had always been initiated by the medical profession, or the government or both in unison. These days when doctors…
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News Ltd – QUM – Profitless Prosperity – and get in line to join the chorus of dissent
The “profitless prosperity” that those millionaire pharmacists, owning pharmacies they are currently trying to keep afloat, have my sympathy. They are being savaged by the millionaire Murdoch Press who are deliberately stirring up and distorting images of pharmacy that are blatantly false – and they know it! What does it say about their professionalism? As…
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Post ANAO Report – the way ahead.
In his State of the Union address on 20 January, 2015, President Barrack Obama said: “I want the country that eliminated polio and mapped the human genome to lead a new era of medicine—one that delivers the right treatment at the right time.” And crucial to achieving that reality, said experts who addressed the 2014…
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Science teaches us that we must see to believe, but we must also believe in order to see!
The current ruling on homeopathy defies logical reasoning, bearing in mind that just 60 studies were taken into account of 1300 submitted Systematic reviews typically find a lack of definite positive evidence of efficacy, and recommend further research. 49% of systematic research reviews on conventional medicine reach similar “inclusive” conclusions, 96% recommend further research. (El…
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Try brainstorming to remedy cloudy thinking
An electric utility in the northwestern U.S. had problems with ice building up on its power transmission lines during the winter. The company had to send linesmen out to climb the pylons that held the lines to clear off the ice and snow. It was difficult and dangerous work, especially as bears sometimes wandered close…
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PSA Media Releases- Multi Releases
March 20, 2015 Nominate now for 2015 PSA Excellence Awards Nominations for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia prestigious Awards for Excellence – acknowledged as the pharmacy profession’s most sought-after awards are now open. National President of PSA, Grant Kardachi, said the PSA Excellence Awards acknowledged and recognised some of the profession’s great achievers. “I encourage pharmacists to nominate or put…
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ASMI Media Release – 1. Zinc lozenges reduce duration of common cold 2. Australia lags NZ in “switches”
New study found zinc lozenges reduce duration of common cold 19 March 2015 – The Australian Self Medication Industry (ASMI) welcomed a new study, which revealed that high dose zinc acetate lozenges reduce the duration of the common cold. The study, a meta-analysis of three placebo-controlled, randomised, double blind studies, was published in the journal,…