Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

This preamble is an invitation from the Rainbow Community Pharmacy and the Jeparit Depot to join in a special celebration to attest to the fact that despite the odds, this unique pharmacy conglomerate has managed to provide an excellent and expanding health service to a rural community.
You are invited to drop in at the Rainbow Pharmacy or the depot in Jeparit on Friday, 6th December at any time during the day, and say g'day.
Or you might prefer the sausage sizzle at Yurunga in the evening from 6.30 pm onwards.
Contact Rainbow Pharmacy by telephoning 03 539 51023, or if you are passing by, find your way to 6 Federal Street, Rainbow, Victoria.
We would love to share our celebration with you, and demonstrate the achievements noted in the article following.

This edition sees the culmination of the first five-year plan for the Rainbow Community Pharmacy- and we are right back to my first article-back at the crossroads!

My initial aims have been achieved.
The pharmacy has not closed down.
Thirty five locum pharmacists have kept the pharmacy open, and given my staff and myself the benefits of their wide experience during the five years. We have proved that pharmacy practice in a remote area can be vibrant, can be a lifeline for the community, and most importantly can have some far reaching effects on the overall practice of pharmacy.
There has been an increase of pharmacists in the region- a locum pharmacist, two consultant pharmacists doing medication reviews, and one of my locum pharmacists who has seen the light, sold his house in Melbourne and bought a house in Rainbow.
Interesting, isn't it!
Four extra pharmacists in the region who are not bound to a pharmacy for over 40 hours each week!
Is this part of the future for pharmacy?

I cannot see a rosy future for pharmacy in concentrating on sales, scripts or supermarket threats.
I can see a bright future with increased interaction with the community and others working in the health field. The evolution of Information Technology has seen the end of our monopoly of information about medications.
But we still have the edge.
Our training gives us the tools to assess that information.
We need to be proactive in using this in both the community and in all areas of public health.

As a result of the restructuring of the Rainbow Pharmacy, the Pharmacy Board is interested in moving further and investigating how a pharmacist can regularly visit our depot 32 km away (at least weekly) and if it would be feasible for that pharmacist to actually dispense at the depot.

However the real need is not the actual dispensing of prescriptions.
Systems have evolved over time in Rainbow and in many other remote centres, for getting scripts to a pharmacist and medications back to the patient. The systems are not the ultimate, and much less safe and convenient than those available to patients in the cities and large centres.

The real need is to be able to increase pharmacist/patient or customer interaction, to have better communication with the doctor, and be able to take part in any treatment plan for the patients, and to improve the overall management of medications.

In a remote pharmacy it is easier to see the symptoms of the four-wall syndrome-obsessive counting of scripts, customers and money in the till.
It is also easier to see the benefits of employing another pharmacist (perhaps in conjunction with the local hospital).
The benefits may flow-another teacher for the small school, a full forward for the football team, activities in the hospital and with the district nurse, another wage distributed around the town-and ultimately back into the pharmacy.

So I am back at the crossroads again.
What is the direction for the next five years?
The pharmacy undertakes specialty practice training, especially in asthma, and works actively with the West Wimmera Health Service to provide education and support.
We become involved in Home Medicines Reviews and Medication Reviews.
And the ultimate, we provide training for pharmacy students, trainees or overseas pharmacists in conjunction with the West Vic Division of GP, West Wimmera Health Service and the Bendigo School of Pharmacy.
A remote campus for occasional use!
A remote practice curriculum that could be transported for a month to other rural centres.
It's a dream!

My dream would be costly.
But so was the purchase of the Rainbow Pharmacy five years ago.
My dream may be impossible to staff.
But no one believed that Rainbow could be kept open using locum pharmacists entirely.
My dream may be impossible to implement when I live three hours away from Rainbow, and only visit once every couple of months (I visit my own pharmacy-not work in it!).
But I've done that for the last five years anyway.

I have had an extremely interesting and fulfilling life as a hospital pharmacist.
All the mistakes and trials of my first three years as a community pharmacist have now been eclipsed by the loyalty and support of my staff, locum pharmacists, and community.
We have together achieved the impossible.

May your celebration of Christmas be especially memorable and meaningful for you. From Ayron Teed