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Pathology Services – Better Options for Community Pharmacy
The recent pressure applied by the AMA and the RACGP in respect of the Sigma / Sonic Healthcare Project, to offer paid pathology tests through the AMCAL franchise must be bordering on unacceptable conduct under the Australian Trade Practices Act. The medical profession is looking and acting more like a cartel in every respect and…
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King & Complementary Medicines
I continue to be amazed at how the wide-reaching inquiry into the future of our profession has been hijacked into a focus on complementary medicines and more specifically homeopathy. This enquiry, having now published their findings as “options”, seems to have overlooked the wide-ranging expectations as to how pharmacists can be used more effectively to…
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Ten forms of fake news used by major media
The term “fake news” is receiving more prominence of late, possibly because of the aggressive stance taken by US president, Donald Trump in denouncing it via his Twitter account – his chosen method of releasing information to the general public, rather than brief mainstream media (MSM). However health news has been acquiring an increasing content level…
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The King Review – WHAT LIES BENEATH!
The King Review panel has currently reached an interim report stage that discloses a range of options which form up into four major groupings – cosmetic positive, cosmetic negative, industry alternatives and future government policy direction (documented and undocumented). Overlaps occur between these groupings and perspectives will obviously vary depending on their interest segment. My…
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Has Professional Pharmacy descended to a new low?
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…
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Setting up an Open Innovation Program
Let’s face it – community pharmacy is in a knowledge transfer bind. It can no longer function under its own self reliance. It is bogged down because pharmacy leadership has developed hardening of the arteries and finds itself immobile inside each of its traditional infrastructures. The primary cause is twofold: * Information is being collated…
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OMNS News Service – Vitamin C and Sepsis
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, May 24, 2017 Vitamin C and Sepsis: The genie is now out of the bottle The enormous effectiveness of vitamin C in helping to resolve any of a wide variety of infections comes as no surprise to anyone who has made at least a minimal effort to study the large body of…
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Location Rules Need to be Re-purposed
For the best part of 12 months it has been an open secret that Location Rules for pharmacies would pass muster as being of sufficient “public benefit” for them to remain in place. Even the chair of the King Review very early in his investigation, appeared to favour retention of the rules. For those of…
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Scientism – A Sinister Method of Control
Seth Godin has this magical way of finding the exact words for some of the myriad of thoughts that pass through my mind when I attempt to write something relevant for my profession. And then it just happens. My “in-box” lights up with Seth’s latest blog and ignites and organises my thoughts into a straight…
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Health Literacy – A Concept for a Valid Direction for Community Pharmacy
Recently, I had a conversation with a health professional involved in the public health system. Research had emerged that large pockets of populations were experiencing epidemic levels of chronic illness such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. These population pockets correlated with areas of low socio-economic households where people had generally poor diets and…