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An ABC News bulletin on 19th February had
this to say:
Health Services in rural and regional areas could be plunged in
to further crisis over the next decade with research pointing
to a critical shortage of pharmacists.
Whether the ABC has considered the impact which technology will
have on the pharmacy industry is not known.
Certainly the report which forms the basis of the research, a
study commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, had every
opportunity to consider all aspects of "future shock".
The advancements in technology have already spawned the "remote
controlled dispensing" (RCD) machine in use in the US but
yet to find a footing in the Australian marketplace.
This device allows:
* a prescription to be written in a remote place,
* transmitted electronically to a "central" pharmacy,
* enter into database
* transmit signal back to drop the prescribed drug from a slot
in the device
* print the label and have this affixed to the pack by an unskilled
worker watched by video link by the
pharmacist back at home base.
Involvement of pharmacist:
* View database where input has been by a technician
* Monitor adhering label to a pack done remotely by unskilled
worker.
The question becomes:
"How many pharmacists do you need to do these two basic tasks?"
The answer is less than what you need to man 5,000 retail pharmacies
across Australia where the pharmacy to population ratio of 1:
3800 is still too small for the essential task required - dispensing
PBS.
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It
will be a matter of finding placements for the pharmacists
graduating rather than entice "pharmacists who have
dropped out of the workforce" back in to training
and part-time work. This answer was quoted on the ABC
as being Guild Research Manager Donna Stephenson's suggestion
to the problem as well as importing overseas pharmacists.
Imagine
the scenario where the supply of PBS items to the public
is tendered out to the lowest bidder for a population
catchment of say 10,000 at least.
The further crisis will be easily remedied in the remote
and rural areas due to improved communication links, thanks
to Telstra, and the installation of the RCD machines described
earlier.
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touch screen is used to produce a label for adhering to a
pack in a remote place using barcode technology. |
And don't overlook the fact that the prescription in that remote
place was written by a doctor with all the training and legal
basis for oversighting the placing of the label on the package.
A lot of Government dollars are being spent populating remote
areas with doctors and this includes housing so there is somewhere
to live.
A recent post to the Auspharmlist suggested that a doctor's organisation
was dispensing via the Internet. The impact this had on readers
showed they are not yet sensitised to the day they are not fixing
the label to the packet.
The only step left in the physical process of dispensing is matching
the label with the packet and it won't be long before barcode
scanning solves that problem.
So get used to it.
There will be fewer PBS supply outlets.
The Government cannot afford to maintain the 5,000 outlets there
are in 2003.
Technology will allow doctors to dispense - a practice legally
possible in 2003.
Rural and remote areas will not suffer and may even be the first
to benefit.
The consumer will make the final decision as to where their prescriptions
will be filled - and not the Pharmacy Guild's research.
Pharmacists all over are challenged to move with the times and
not continue to be stuck in an era that was great when typewriters
were in vogue.
In a millennium already being dubbed the "Technology Revolution"
planning ahead is essential for surviving "future shock".
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