Editorial

From the desk of the editor

Welcome to the May 2012 homepage edition of i2P-Information to Pharmacists. Rollo Manning has been having some time out having staples removed from the site of his open heart surgery.He is now at home recuperating in Darwin, having arrived home last Friday, beating a cold and hasty retreat from Canberra.We all wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully, he will be fit enough to contribute by next month.
This month, Pharmedia discusses the toll that is taken when someone complains about you to an authority without good cause. Well, the good news is that you can now take action to protect yourself if such a complaint is made, and that may even include action for defamation. Read about a recent case involving two doctors, with Mark Coleman drawing on personal experience to illustrate.

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Pharma-Goss.... with Rollo Manning

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Rollo Manning has experienced pharmacy practice from all sectors of the industry – retail, administrative, policy and remote Aboriginal practice. He spent 10 years with Glaxo Australia and was the first Director of Public Relations at the Pharmacy Guild National Secretariat in Canberra. He has also held the position of Pharmacy Policy Officer for Territory Health Services in Darwin. Rollo is currently a Consultant working in his own practice with remote Aboriginal communities, in Northern Australia.

THE NO 1 PRIORITY FOR THE 5TH COMMUNITY PHARMACY AGREEMENT (if there is one) IS… A PHARMACARE AGENCY.
A separate agency is needed to handle payments to pharmacists for services rendered under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme so consumers can recognise the services being given and that a “fair” remuneration is being paid to the provider.

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The agency will operate along similar lines to Medicare and make its information available for cross referencing on matters such as “doctor shopping”. It will work closely with the professional voice for pharmacists - the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia - in developing protocols for the addition of fees payable to pharmacists for value added services considered as being essential to meet the aspirations of the National Medicines Policy under the heading of “quality use of medicines”.

Consumer health (non government agencies) such as the Heart Foundation, Kidney Australia, Asthma Australia etcetera, will be involved to identify the services needed by their client group and assist in describing the service. The range of add on services will only be added to after consultation with the relevant NGO involved in the service being provided. In other words, pharmacists will NOT decide what they should do for an additional fee. Consumers of the services offered will be the primary identifiers for which acknowledgement of receipt will be required by the patient before any benefit is paid to the provider. Like Medicare there will be a “common fee” determined above which the consumer would have to pay.

Payments from Pharmacare will be made to either an Approved Pharmacy or an accredited pharmacist provider, recognizing that there are situation in the healthcare scenario where pharmacists operate from and not always the “retail” shop front. Examples are Aged Care facilities, Residential Care Facilities, Aboriginal Health Services and Multi Purpose Primary Health Care Centres.

The determination of fees paid for the supply of PBS items to the public will involve the Pharmacy Guild in determining the level of remuneration to meet the business transaction of supply between the Approved Pharmacy and the Commonwealth. This will be determined by the existing Pharmaceutical Benefits Remuneration Tribunal, which shall also rule on the appropriateness of other fees in line with the rates paid to other health professionals in the Medicare Schedule of Benefits.

If you like this idea tell your Guild Zone representative, local Member of Parliament, contacts in NGOs and anyone else that may be interested.

In the view of this writer it is the salvation between pharmacists having a future in healthcare or being relegated to the supply agent prepared to cut prices, accept purchasing incentives and be a party to dubious advertising practices that project the image of a hard nosed retailer as opposed to a health professional.

A Pharmacare agency will allow practitioners (pharmacists) to establish professional practices that project an image similar to that achieved by Optometrists. In fact the optometry “shop” is the ideal example of what pharmacists could follow with their income boosted by value added services to the supply function.

PRICELINE PHARMACIES AT IT AGAIN

Cashing in on the Swine Flu pandemic or just a sheer coincidence when a full page ad appeared in The Australian newspaper for a way of protecting against winter flu. Enticing the reader to buy online or at pharmacies, the ad had all the elements of another product of doubtful value being promoted through pharmacies fro credibility.

Was it a coincidence?

No doubt about the marketers at Priceline – whether it be stopping the flu or picking a winner at the Randwick Races they have thought of everything with little regard for the professional standing of the person in the white coat trying to be a genuine health professional.

ANOTHER COINCIDENCE OR SCHEDULED FOR WEEKS

SBS-TV had a topical subject on the final Insight program before a kid winter break looking at the promotion of drugs to doctors. In the firing line was Medicines Australia Chair Will Delaat in one corner and the warhorse for consumer rights Professor Ken Harvey.

Delaat did well until the audience was reminded that he presided over Merck’s during the marketing of Vioxx.

No doubt the review of the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct in ethical marketing will get a few suggestions following the revelations of the case currently before the courts.

The SBS program is compulsory viewing for anyone interested in pharmaceutical marketing and can be viewed at http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/67

SPEAKING OF UNUSUAL PROMOTIONS

Rugby fans will have been absorbed by the final of the Super 14 provincial competition although Waikato Chiefs fans will have been disappointed they did not get a “home” final. In an inspired marketing campaign to attract workers in the Waikato (Hamilton) regional of the North Island the authorities turned the playing pitch into a giant advertising hoarding. The website explained:

"Health professionals work in Waikato! www.waikatodhb.govt.nz"

is the message Waikato DHB Media and Communications Director Mary Anne Gill hopes will guide South African, Australian, European and New Zealand rugby fans to the site so they can see what jobs and lifestyle are on offer in the Waikato.

"We're always in the market for dedicated health professionals at Waikato DHB," she said.

"In recent times we've scoured the world for health professionals and as a result of some innovations to our website last year, we now know they scour the web for us too."

Send your subject suggestions to Pharma-Goss for comment.

Edited by Rollo Manning at rollom@iinet.net.au

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