Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine dated Monday 13 June 2016.
As I write, the Australian national elections draw closer, petitions arrive by email urging me to sign up to a range of urgent problems that seem to flow from a range of poor policy decisions (like the damage to the Great Barrier Reef), a massacre within the US where 50 people have been killed – and the general mood for the entire world, it seems, is one of pessimism.
So current pharmacy problems might seem insignificant in light of what is happening throughout the rest of the world, but we are no exception and we too, are in the throes of maintaining our profession through integrity and values that are forever under attack.
So it is enlightening when a political group such as the NXT Party (Nick Xenophon Team) comes out in support of community pharmacy with statements that seem to have integrity that other political parties do not have.
They spout “band-aid” statements that sound good, but only last until the election is over, and if they happen to win, pursue their own declared “mandate”.
But we also have another potentially bright star in the recently formed Health Australia Party (HAP) that aligns itself as a centre party with the health of Australian culture and the policies of all things universally held important by Australians, including personal health.
i2P has invited an article from one of the founders of HAP.
They are seeking Senate positions to start, simply to be able to ask appropriate questions and have them recorded officially in the records of the Australian Parliament.
So as the National Prescribing Service say in their major marketing program – “Choose Wisely!” and make your vote count in the coming elections.
Also in the news this week was the heartening response by the EU in rejecting the licencing of glyphosate (Roundup) because there is now sufficient knowledge surrounding its health dangers, and its damage to farm soils.
The Journal Nature has also published an article warning about GM organisms being released in the wild. Go to: http://www.nature.com/news/fast-spreading-genetic-mutations-pose-ecological-risk-1.20053?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
As Australia has signed up to the ridiculous ides that GM mosquitoes will be developed to eliminate the Zika virus by being released into the wild (at great taxpayer cost) and the fraudulent idea of developing a vaccine against Zika virus infection (an infection that does not cause microcephaly and will create $’s billions in fraudulent profits for Pharma’s – again at taxpayer expense), i2P is relieved that the madness that is “manufactured science” is starting to be understood with information that is actually getting out.
Mainstream media continues to misreport on the Zika virus.
i2P has been researching the players behind the scene that are responsible for massive global manipulation of science and government policy.
We are beginning to become aware and understand how a major group of people that hold positions of power in industry, academia and government come together regularly and secretly, and share ideas and create agendas that can alter national elections (including the current US elections where Donald Trump is succeeding despite all efforts to get Hilary Clinton as the “chosen one” for the next president).
That these people seem to be able to get their way despite the wishes of genuinely elected politicians, and can override local legislation through the use of “treaties” is nothing short of being criminal.
Note that Donald Trump is against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, unlike Australia, which is being urged to sign despite the fact that it gives massive power to global corporations (mainly US-based) that will eventually enslave a country’s ordinary citizens.
Current political leaders in Australia are all implicated in the TPPA and the financial benefits to the selfish individual (not to the country) are being seen in blatant conflict of interest activities that are not pursued.
Our lead article for this week is based on internal research and updated to allow pharmacists to better equip themselves to handle such issues as “patient engagement”; “patient-centred homes”; “patient care”; “patient triage”; “patient advocacy” – all issues that pharmacists have dealt with in the past, but maybe under a different name or a different interpretation of what a patient needed.
The take-home theme from this research is that the health system has an unreported undercurrent that could destabilise the entire system, and that pharmacists will need to invest savings from new productivity systems and fight aggressively to keep government hands of every productively saved dollar.
Because government will confiscate every dollar they can to run a system that is already at the end of its life cycle and needs an injection of innovation.
Pharmacy can do it better but will have to fight to maintain the right to deliver appropriate pharmacy care, because this will be central to pharmacy surviving whatever is thrown at us, through poor government policies that may include the invitation to giant global pharmacy conglomerates to move into Australia.
This article can be found here:
A Patient’s Real Cost – Their time Involvement and a future cause for health system collapse
Closely related to the lead article is the subject of collaboration.
As usual, the subject has been introduced through professions like the medical profession, but there has been little debate on the subject except for the potential of fusing a GP and a clinical pharmacist by welding them at the hip, thus creating a magical solution for a patient.
That no discussion or design for collaboration from a pharmacy perspective has actually been put forward for debate, i2P sought a writer that was able to illustrate collaboration in its widest sense in a non-partisan sense i.e a suitable analogy for pharmacists to interpret and adopt.
Monica Wullf is our new writer in this issue, and we are republishing one of her articles that to me, is one of the clearest examples I have found that would suit pharmacy adaptation.
Read: Israel has an ECOsystem not an EGOsystem
The next article is one from Dr Isaac Golden, a Victorian senate candidate for the Health Australia Party (HAP).
The fact that a political party had to be formed to truly represent all aspects of Australia’s culture, is symptomatic of how out of touch the major parties have become.
Read: CORRUPTION IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR: Why the Health Australia Party is needed
Gerald Quigley is back with a short article on the state of official pharmacy policy matters, and how they confuse and demoralise by reducing a sense of purpose.
That Australian pharmacy policy is neither a driver for pharmacist collaboration and a confusion to the patients of pharmacy, ought to be obvious to those with leadership aspirations.
That there is confusion and disappointment does not bode well for future cohesion.
Read: A Professional Conundrum
I always enjoy reading the Marketing Focus column prepared by Barry Urquhart, a quality publication that i2P delivers to its own subscribers.
His insights into management and marketing issues always have analogy for pharmacy managers and much of his writing can be absorbed into pharmacy culture, with suitable adaptation.
Read: Marketing Focus – Miscellaneous Essays on Management & Marketing
Harvey Mackay is back with an article that is especially relevant to pharmacists.
Recent figures released in the US illustrate that medical (not pharmacist) errors are the number three cause of death.
Add to that a range of pharmacist errors and death due to mainstream drug misuse and you have a very steep medical problem.
Patients will rarely forgive pharmacist error because it is usually documented on a medicine container with attribution to those in charge of dispensing (even though they may not have been directly involved).
So we have evolved a system that tends to blame an individual with little information made available instead of what is needed – a “no blame” system that removes legal action against the individual (except where blatant criminality is involved), allowing for research and development of error reduction systems that would work towards a minimal error system from pharmacy (Ironically, robotic dispensing will reduce human error).
i2P has previously written about a “no blame” system about two years ago.
So here’s Harvey’s take on a generic approach to errors that pharmacy leaders might like to adapt for their particular policy issues.
Read: A lesson in making mistakes
And we finish up our offering in this edition with a range of leader organisation media reviews.
Read PSA: PSA Media Releases 1. Pharmacists to “Next Level” 2. Healthcare Reforms must Match Pharmacist Potential
We hope you enjoy this current edition and please comment in the panel below each article if you feel you can make a contribution to the overall message of each article.
Neil Johnston
Editor, i2P E-Magazine
Monday 13 June, 2016