 KEN
STAFFORD
Consultant
Pharmacist Perspective
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Is
Pharmacy its Own Worst Enemy
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Is the
pharmacy profession its own worst enemy?
I've asked myself this question a number of times over the past
month.
We seem to have a death wish in relation to pharmacy and its survival
in its current form.
The first time I asked the question was when the Pan Pharmaceuticals
crisis hit the airways. This problem, created by apparent lack
of appropriate overview by the Therapeutic Goods Administration
(TGA), cast the profession in a bad light as pharmacies are major
distributors of Pan complementary medicines.
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Questions
started to be raised as to why pharmacists would sell products whose
quality they could not guarantee.
The distinction between the manufacture of mainline medicines and
natural medicines has never been, to my knowledge, properly explained.
This was highlighted by an article in our local newspaper where
a naturopath, somewhat smugly I thought, wrote that the only products
proved to have problems were "Chemist only" medicines
and no complementary medicine had a problem!
Must admit the thought went through my mind that this is possibly,
just possibly, due to the non-scheduled items not having much in
the way of therapeutic activity anyway.
I hope that official pharmacy will respond to this article in some
way.
Three weeks ago I attended the Pharmaceutical Society of Western
Australia Sunday Seminar where, during the opening address, the
president of the Western Australian Pharmacy Council spoke about
the government thrust to "rationalise the administration of
pharmacy in Australia".
This, it seems, is an attempt to remove pharmacists from controlling
the profession in this country by altering the board structure.
We, as a profession, I was told have to prove to that nebulous entity,
"the government" that pharmacists are the best way to
run pharmacy, and that we have to show how we add value to medication
management.
"Why", I thought, "is it up to pharmacy to prove
its value?"
Surely, if changes are mooted, it is up to those proposing the changes
to show how they will improve the lot of the average Australian.
I cannot even guess how many times I have heard or read that pharmacy
in Australia leads the world and is the envy of many countries.
If this is so, why the sudden urge to make wholesale changes to
how the profession is controlled?
In my role as pharmacy advisor I get to meet, and talk with, many
community pharmacists, and I continue to be amazed at "added
value" services that many of them offer.
Free advice and free delivery are merely the tip of the pharmaceutical
services iceberg.
Very few pharmacists consider that their responsibility ends when
the customer/patient walks out of the shop. I hear tales of late
night calls, emergency visits to the local hospital, multiple telephone
calls to solve problems.
The list is never ending.
Why is it that we never hear of this in the media?
It appears that only negative stories appear on the television or
in the local newspapers.
Despite this pharmacy still remains one of the most trusted professions,
so why do we allow ourselves to be "pushed around" by
government.
It is up to pharmacists to get off their collective behinds and
start to fight these economic rationalists and others who threaten
our profession.
This fight is not specifically about remuneration or even total
control, it is about survival of the profession. In the words of
the prophet (don't particularly care which one),"If it ain't
broke, why try to fix it."
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