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EDITORIAL

Priceline Pointers
By Neil Johnston

In a recent radio interview in South Africa, Peter Green, the financial director of New Clicks, was asked various questions on the Australian Priceline Pharmacy extension.
He confirmed that Priceline was using the Packenham store as a model, and that the plan was to open one additional pharmacy before Christmas this year (Mornington Peninsula).
The basic plan, he said, is to add value to the retail end of pharmacy, which Priceline claims, existing banner groups are unable to do, because of their wholesaler focus.

The Measure of Success
By Rollo Manning

Evaluation is a buzz word among program directors and managers and yet how much is ever done on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)?
How easy would it be to gather information on how many of the number of repeats printed are ever dispensed?
A challenge is sent out to a person who can come up with an answer from their own community pharmacy practice.
This is a measure of success for the PBS and its three key stakeholders – the doctors, pharmacist and manufacturers.

An Innovation to Keep Note of
By Peter Sayers

With the increase of electronic records and their portability, new obligations exist to safeguard patient information. Privacy legislation exists in most parts of the world to protect individuals, and this legislation expands daily through precedent and experience.
In America, a new piece of legislation entitled the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is about to be enacted, and some aspects are sure to find their way into the Australian system eventually.

How far down the road are we?
By Jon Aldous

Movements to increase the professional role of the pharmacist and to delegate all mechanical dispensing functions to technicians are far more advanced in the UK than in Australia. Government plans in the UK have earmarked pharmacists to take on increased responsibility for prescribing, medicines management and a larger role in the management of chronic disease. All of these moves prompt the question of how far away are we in Australia from seeing similar roles established here. How far behind the pace-setters are we?

The Need for Rural Pharmacists: Targeting School Students
By Simon Rudderham

”Pharmacists do more than wear white coats and count pills”. This is a line spurted by Adam Spencer, Radio/TV personality, on a new television advertising campaign by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia aimed at convincing high school students to become pharmacists.

Purchase Plus Takes Micro Business Award honours
By Patrick Reid

Editor's Note: We are pleased to publicise any pharmacist success stories, particularly when they relate to Information Technology systems.
Patrick Reid, based in Canberra, has come up with a gateway system for ordering, which creates an online solution for the delegation of this important function.
In the current climate of pharmacists complaining they do not have enough time over the day, and with the weekend becoming a lost cause, Purchase Plus represents at least one alternative in a bid to claim back a rational working day.
It has won the ACT Micro Business of the Year Award as well as taking the honours in the emerging business division and the Internet technology category.

Life Is No Beach
By Andrew Snow

I briefly look at my schedule for the next month and absolutely freak out!
Just when you are piled up to your eyeballs in assignments, my last class informs me that there is an assessment due next week.
So, that takes my tally up to six assignments – I feel absolutely tortured.

Clinical Testing in Pharmacies -
First Results From the 2002 Survey
of Australia’s pharmacies
By Con Berbatis

A little-known government review and initial results from the recently completed national survey may open the doors to a new era of clinical testing in Australia’s community pharmacies.
In its July draft report the Commonwealth Review of Pathology Arrangements under Medicare supported Point of Care Testing (PoCT) in pharmacies.
Submissions made in 2000 by the Pharmacy Guild and Curtin University’s Professor Bruce Sunderland and Con Berbatis featured in almost 10% of both the Review’s 145 page Background report and the 33 page final Draft examining PoCT.
It recommended “..The current regulatory arrangements should be amended to provide for the point of care testing where its clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness can be demonstrated….”

Postcards From the Coalface
By Peter Allen

Editor's Note: Some people have all the luck. Terry Irvine, who usually writes under this title, is currently roughing it on a tour of Europe, so Peter Allen has taken over for this edition.
Peter is a Melbourne community pharmacist, who is one of the more prolific contributors to Auspharmlist, where his various topics are well written, well organised and often delivered with a sense of pungency. He is also a contributor to the www.auspharmacist.net site.
Peter is a welcome addition to our team.
His topic for this article covers some attitudinal aspects of global drug manufacturers.

Retailer Performance Change
By Neil Johnston

There is a tremendous amount of activity and new development in the professional services area of pharmacy, and it is happening amidst a climate of poor pharmacist availability, congestion in the workplace and an ever aging group of pharmacy proprietors.
Some community pharmacies have let their standards slip, while others have endeavoured to keep up to the Guild accreditation ideals.
What appears to be happening is that community pharmacy is yet again losing its grip on market share, and is reducing its emphasis on retailing as part of a pharmacy offering.
This is not good, and pharmacy is long overdue for a restructure, despite the modest advances promoted through the Wilkinson Review some three years ago.
Pharmacy can have it all.

Pharmacy Austral Conference 2002
By Karalyn Huxhagen

The 2002 Pharmacy Austral Congress (PAC) was an outstanding conference with many fine speakers and poster presentations. The enthusiasm of the young pharmacists that I spoke to was heartening to see as I often hear our industry leaders commenting on workforce issues with statements such as ‘Pharmacy today is not an interesting career path for our graduates’. If anyone has a chance to read the presentations by Rebekah Moles, Simon Bell and Allison Roberts on ‘Young Pharmacists and Pharmacy Students: Partnerships for the Future of the Profession” or Lisa Nissen, Sue Tett, Ian Kinsey, Chris Cutts, Tony La Caze on “Ensuring a Bold New Future for Pharmacy in the Bush-Telepharmacy’ and many others that were presented as both contributed papers or posters I would thoroughly recommend it. These young Pharmacists are an outstanding example of where the Practice of Pharmacy is moving in this new century. (Many thanks to PDL for sponsoring many of the young Pharmacists)

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