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Welcome to the first homepage edition of i2P for 2012.
In many ways it has been a slow start to the New Year because of having to deal with the “leftovers” from 2011.
One of those items for i2P was that a third-party provider to the site did not advise of a code change to the security section in our subscribe panel, creating a range of frustrated subscribers not able to get on board.
We apologise to all those potential subscribers who were unable to register with us in the second half of 2011, but if you try once more you should have no problem.

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Volume 2012 Number 1

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Introducing Jeanette Sell - The Colac Community Leader who took on a Pharmacy Monopoly

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	Peter Sayers articles by this author...
Peter Sayers is vitally concerned about pharmacy professional practice - its innovation, its research and development, and its delivery to create an ongoing revenue stream. Delivery of healthcare is increasingly involved with Information Technology systems. All perspectives in IT must be considered for the impact on pharmacy practice and its viability.

In the April edition of i2P, a story involving the ministerial removal of pharmacy location rules was published.
It involved a disparate group of Colac residents coming together to fight the location rules and to establish a third independent pharmacy.
The story was important for a number of important reasons:
(i) The Colac residents did not want a "chain-type" pharmacy.
(ii) They wanted true competition between local pharmacies to avoid a perceived monopoly.
(iii) They wanted good old-fashioned pharmacy personalised service in an appropriate time frame.

As pharmacists we often bemoan the spectre of "Colesworth" providing pharmacy services and the potential for them to strip personalised service out of the independent pharmacy environment.
Yet the existing Colac pharmacies (having the same owner) did exactly that.
The question I pose is if this is the direction of pharmacy (as formulated by the PGA supply side pharmacy and warehouse-type pharmacies) the Colac community have clearly demonstrated that those models are not the preferred version.
i2P asked Jeanette Sell to tell her story in her own words.

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"THE COLAC STORY- PHARMACY MONOPOLY SHATTERED BY THE PEOPLES VOICE:

Over  a period of time, people from the local community told us individually, of their concerns in regards to the service that they were receiving at the local pharmacy.

1. Poor service
2. The forcefully pushing of generic brands onto customers in place of the trade brand drugs
3. Poor health service provision
4. Poor attitudes, rudeness
5. No variety
6. Monopoly

As the community concerns increased, so did ours.

So many people told Jeannette that Colac was getting another Chemist, and finally after hearing this so often, she decided to phone 2 Geelong pharmacies and inquire whether or not they were coming, they told her that they could not possibly come to Colac because the local Pharmacist in Colac, held up to 6 licenses, and that prohibited anyone else from coming into the area.  She asked one Pharmacist what we had to do to procure another pharmacy license so we could have a third pharmacy in Colac to break the monopoly, give us variety and give the other pharmacist, healthy competition.  She was told, to meet with the local Member of Parliament, and he would organise a petition, and we had to get as many signatures as possible, then it would be tabled in Parliament and hopefully the decision would be positive in the acquisition of another license.

After meeting in the local carpark, we, Faye and Jeannette, discussed our private concerns and the concerns of the community, we recruited another member of the community, Ruth, who also had concerns.  We then decided to approach our local state member, Terry Mulder.

The outcome of the meeting was to undertake a petition which the 3 of us would distribute, collect and replace with new petition sheets at least twice a week in each area, where we decided to leave the petitions.  We had 45 places where we left them to be filled with signatures, in Colac and surrounding districts.

Signatures were collected over a four week period and then collated by the Liberal Office.

A meeting was organised, at Healthwise Pharmacy request, to discuss our concerns.

Meeting included Ruth, Jeannette, Faye, Terry Mulder, Alex Papas [Pharmacist] and Denis Weily [Managing Director Healthwise Pharmacy]. 

We discussed all the problems we had heard about from the public and personally, which were numerous.

The meeting ran for 1 ½ hours, and the outcomes were:
1. The idea of a Healthwise Priceline Pharmacy - was mentioned, which was quite firmly rejected with a NO, because that would mean a third Healthwise Pharmacy [more of the same]. 2. This never occurred.

Following this meeting, there was some improvement in customer service in the local pharmacy.  All this was too late.  The pharmacy also put out a “satisfaction survey” for patrons to complete.

The waiting was the hard part, and not knowing which way it was going to go.

Regular meetings with each other and speaking to the Staff in Terry Mulder M.P.’s office, and Terry, keeping us directed  and on track with the direction that we were taking and instructing us on what was best to do, this kept us focused.

The press reports and the knock back of the 3^rd pharmacy license were disappointing at the time.

We were able to keep going with the support of each other and the staff at the Liberal Office and Terry, because we worked as a team.

The local Community was also a big help with their encouragement to each of us.

As people told us of their problems with the Chemist, we wrote them down in our own books, and kept a record of the reasons why we needed a 3^rd Pharmacy.

In January,  Jeannette and Faye talked together, and we decided to collate all the information we had collected  over the time,  and send emails straight  to Nicola Roxon, to voice our concerns and tell her everything, we also kept updating her, with new information as we heard about it.  Letters from the community were also sent to Nicola Roxon, with a copy to Maurice Sheehan [Director of Pharmacy Guild Australia], and the Liberal Office kept a copy for their files.  The Liberal staff gave us permission to send mail and to do the above.

Letters were also written to various Drug Companies, asking them to assist in the alteration of the law allowing the Pharmacist to over ride the script written by the treating Medical Doctor. 

 We had taken on a huge responsibility in representing over 4,700 people who signed our petition.

Once you take on something like that, you must see it through to the end.  This must have been a supporting benefit to our cause.

The local Federal Member Darren Cheeseman, was of no assistance, as he did not believe that it could be achieved.

It had not been previously possible, and it would not happen this time.

Mr. Cheeseman came in at the end, and has taken credit for all the work that has been done by others.

Back in December, before Mr Cheeseman saw Ms. Roxon, Jeannette sent a lot of information that would help him with the meeting, also 2-3 phone calls were made to Mr. Cheeseman, with a message to contact her and she would explain some of the information sent.  She never received a reply to any of her correspondence or phone messages.  That is why the staff at the Liberal office said YES to send all the written matter straight to Ms. Roxon, so she would have a very broad over view of all the problems that everyone had, which were enormous.

We worked together as a team, because the Liberal staff knew what to do, we didn’t, so we were guided by them, to a very good result in the finish.

We never gave up.  Once we started the ball rolling, we had to see it through to the end."

Photograph reproduced by courtesy of the Colac Herald - photographer Nigel Hallett

Photo of winning team:  From Left  Sarah Henderson M.P., Jeannette Sell, David Christofidis (new pharmacy partner), Ruth Spokes, Michael Georgy (new pharmacy partner), Faye Roscoe and Terry Mulder M.P. Ruth Spokes is holding an artist representation of the proposed new pharmacy

Footnote: The location rules, when applied to the Colac situation had skewed a result that not only excluded other pharmacists setting up in opposition, but altered the pharmacy/population optimum ratio of one pharmacy per 3000 head of population.
Colac has a population of approximately 12,000,and that means there is still room for another legitimate licence, with ministerial approval.
The proprietors of the new pharmacy have not only won an optimal population ratio, but have obviously won the goodwill of Colac residents even before the door of the new pharmacy is opened.
This is a good result and a just reward for a couple of young pharmacists willing to take risks and provide energetic and good professional services.
i2P will follow this story and hopefully pick up just after opening day.

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