Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

Each year, towards Christmas, I assess where I am, both in business and personally.
Is the Pharmacy performing well?
Am I happy doing what I am doing and do feel I feel useful?
So important that.

Pretty much the same rule could be cast over the Pharmacy profession I suspect.
Good to be busy, but are we useful?
Good to see full employment.

Good to see Pharmacists striving to feel useful by taking up Consultancies, Compounding, Education and other activities that sets them apart from the rest.
Time too, to look backwards to what was.

Some good. Some very bad.

I can't believe two years of my Apprenticeship was spent washing bottles.
Better to pay an Apprentice's wage ($6 a week!) than to buy new bottles.
Shame.

Indexing the prescription book daily so that records could be retrieved.
No computers then.

But no Methadone dispensing either.
Did we have substance abuse then?

What was the mentality that led to sending prescriptions out without identification?
An example: Chloromycetin eye ointment tubes would be soaked in Ether/Acetone to remove the label so that a dispensing label "The Eye Ointment" could be afixed.
Often residual solvent remained under the cap to irritate the eye upon first use.
We all accepted it as standard practice and that is why today I won't accept anything on face value but examine it's worth.
The truth test.

I am now coming up to my fifth decade in Pharmacy.
Retirement?
Not yet, if at all.
I'm having too much fun.

Enjoy your Christmas break with the family, and start the New Year with a fresh outlook. From Stephen Rogers, Perth.