What has happened to review of DAAs?
An area of pharmacy research that needs addressing before the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement is the question of payment for "dose administration aids".
It is ludicrous to think that in this day and age when pharmacists are trying to prove their worth in professional activity (aside from the "front of shop") there are still pharmacies giving away their time to pack "dose administration aids".

"I am grateful at the moment that I can still sell SOME giftware to cover the cost of the lady who packs my Webster's. (A recent edition of Aged Care Magazine carried a large ad from one eastern states "pharmacist" who offers FREE Webster packing-THANK YOU!!!)"

This is a sad reflection of those pharmacies that are intent on getting PBS business at all costs - the cost of dispensing.
Imagine the outcry if the government said that it was going to scrap the dispensing fee on all ready prepared prescriptions because it knew there were pharmacists who are prepared to do it for nothing - presumably for the sake of picking up the mark up component of the price.

Pharmacy must get serious about the costing of its professional services it is now providing and cease packing dose administration aids at no cost.
The results of the Australian Community Pharmacy Survey conducted by Curtin University using Community Pharmacy Agreement money showed that "High percentages of Australia's community pharmacies reported the weekly provision of dose administration aids and supervised dosing without charging".
This is lamentable.
The number of pharmacies that DID NOT CHARGE for dose administration aids was around the 50% mark.
How can anyone expect a government to pay for a service when the operators themselves are prepared to give it away for nothing?
That places no value on the service supplied. It did not take long for petrol stations to stop washing windscreens and checking oil and tyres once self serve petrol pumps became available.
So what do pharmacists want - bring on the self serve dispensing machines?!
Con Berbatis says in an article in last months Computachem I2P at Recommendation 13:
National bodies of pharmacy should organise and publicise the cost-effectiveness evaluations of the provision of dose administration aids and supervised dosing by pharmacies in order to establish acceptable remuneration for these services.
University departments of pharmacy should emphasise the benefits and procedures of dose administration aids and supervised dosing in the routine teaching of pharmacy practice.
If readers have views on this subject tell them to the research being conducted with Third Agreement money and contact the Quality Medication Care Group, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, which has won the tender to conduct the review.
Ends