Welcome to this weeks i2P – Information to Pharmacists E-Magazine dated Monday 8 December 2014.
The year is rapidly winding up but as we approach 2015 it can be with some excitement, an unusual emotion for pharmacists to embrace given the last few years of disaster.
In a study by Price Waterhouse Cooper, pharmacy globally will start its new growth curve with some optimism.
The cycle will take 20 years to reach its peak and a further 20 years of gradual decline, until renewal in some form will be required.

Also, we have some information relating to clinical spaces and the use of a product called “Switchglass”.
This is one of the marketing elements that is required to adapt your pharmacy to be a clinical setting beyond criticism by pharmacy detractors, including the AMA.

There is no reason not to take inter-professional criticism on board at any time.
Pharmacists must do it better than the competition at all levels, and strive for excellence at all times.

The fact exists that our patients do not recognise all of our competencies simply because we have not told them or provided an organised form of education so that they could learn and understand.
To some extent the new PGA advertising campaign will assist in altering consumer viewpoints, but the major work must be done by individual pharmacists.
Patients currently do not trust us to provide services at a higher level because they have nothing to base their decisions on.
Patient engagement strategies need to be thought out, with the first being a complete separation of cognitive services from the dispensary.

Does it cost or does it pay?

Well, the PSA have provided the evidence that it does pay, but the culture of a dominant dispensary must be altered permanently to ensure the new paradigm of pharmacy health succeeds.
It is a whole of profession approach and divisions of philosophy, mainly along commercial lines must be modified until clinical service income streams can take hold.

Like Schedule 4 Prescription Drugs there needs to be legislation around the style of advertising and pricing.
Clinical services should not be advertised as a discount product.
In fact, advertising should always be around the quality of service, not the price, and I hope our leadership organisations take this on board before they (clinical services) become loss leaders for some commercial product promotion.

Articles in this edition on design applications for clinical spaces and taking ownership of the professional services to be delivered may assist you in preparing some New Year resolutions now.
There is also evidence that government and mainstream media are waking up to the doctor induced strategy of catastrophe prediction due to the ageing population.
These types of prediction always involve training more GP’s and the medical lobby swallowing up most of the available health budget and then delivering expensive solutions.
After all this time there is realisation that other health professions can, and in pharmacy’s case, always have delivered on primary health care.
The view is also forming up that a pharmacist-nurse combination would deliver the equivalent of a GP so why waste money when resources already exist.
So gradually over 2015 we will see the evening out of lopsided and expensive health budgets dominated by doctors.

And it would be prudent to form some working alliance with the nursing profession to ensure we have their support, because they too are looking for additional work opportunities.
Pharmacists also need to have some form of a hospital base built in to future education, so a productive alliance could help in that regard, given that nurses have the numbers in a hospital when it comes down to a political vote.

The US will lead this charge, but the UK and Australia will be taken along for the ride.

Our leadership bodies seem to be having some success in pushing this point of view to government and the evidence that pharmacy can manage large expenditure items like the PBS is now in, and on the record.

i2P will be reducing its article output by about half over the holiday period so keep looking out for us in your in-box as usual.

Enjoy your weeks’ reading.

The Editor
Monday 8 December 2014