Edition#26 Newsletter

Welcome to the 26th edition of Computachem Newsletter.
In this edition we publish a letter from pharmacist Ken Stafford, who puts forward the proposition that it is no longer acceptable for a pharmacist to be intimately involved in dispensing. His letter appears below.
As editor, I circulated this letter to some of the columnists, and they have responded with their thoughts on the subject.
It is remarkable that they have all come to the same basic conclusion, and you can enter the debate by reading Rollo Manning "The Job of a Pharmacist", Jon Aldous "An idea for the Future", Roy Stevenson "My Week in Review" and Neil Johnston "Where is the Vision?"
We welcome interaction from any newsletter reader, because we feel that our pharmacy leaders have taken us down the wrong track. The basic premises as to pharmacy's future directions are sound, but the pathway to achieve the vision is flawed.
However, it can be rectified, and the above writers will be following their individual lines of thought in future editions.
Brett Clark follows on in his series on e-commerce, and highlights some of the difficulties involved in marketing on the Internet and preserving "bricks and mortar" business. Brett advises that the problem is going to exacerbate in coming months, so anyone with e-commerce aspirations should closely follow his column.
Leigh Kibby writes on an aspect of leadership quality he describes as "emotional intelligence". Read with interest, because relationship management will be needed as corporate pharmacy evolves.
Consultant Pharmacy gets another mention in this edition, and the proposition is put forward as to how and why a consultancy practice should be established, to deal with the private market (as distinct from government funded exercises). It will extend into a series on practice development, management and marketing in future newsletters.
Our Roundup columnist has gathered some comments in regard to his proposal to video supervise remote dispensing.
What do you think?
It's not too late to add extra comments.

Dear Sir,
I enjoy the Newsletter but three articles in the 25th edition highlight, what I think to be, the problem with pharmacy at present.
Rollo Manning writes on the "Profession" of pharmacy and Jon Aldous on "What we should be learning" emphasising how pharmacy must progress away from the assembly line that is the modern community pharmacy.
Roy Stevenson then shows how pharmacy owners think - he was unable to find a pharmacy locum/graduate who could "turn out scripts at the same rate he could". How can we possibly progress as a profession when the indicator of a "good" pharmacist is how short a time it takes to dispense a script?
If this is how we measure "goodness" a computerised dispensing machine is a much better pharmacist than either you or I!
Community pharmacy has fallen into the trap of having to dispense umpteen hundreds of prescriptions in the shortest possible time to be financially viable. How can a single pharmacist, dispensing 2-300 scripts a day in some cases, possibly counsel patients, carry out other pharmaceutical care activities and still keep up to date?
I'm sorry, it's just not on.
I am fortunate in the fact that, except for one day a week, I work in a different facet of the profession that permits me to concentrate on the "more fun" aspects of pharmacy i.e. counseling and education.
I do not believe that "assembly line" pharmacy is in our best interests.
How could our leaders have allowed this current situation to develop?
Our strength is in the field of drug usage and remuneration must be based on being able to apply this.
Consultant pharmacy and medication management is possibly where we should, as a profession, addressing our efforts.
I realise that dispensing prescriptions pays the bills but let us be serious about it, what other profession would expect to make a "profit" of about $40 on supply of a $2000 item?
This is the scenario for a pharmacy dispensing a high cost item such as alteplase or a Section 100 drug.
If we continue to think like shop keepers we will continue to be treated like shop keepers.

Ken Stafford
Executive Officer Pharmacy
Phone: 08-93668337
Fax: 08-93668375
e-mail: Ken.Stafford@dva.gov.au

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