Editorial

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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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Pharmacist prescribing in NZ flags other issues

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John Dunlop articles by this author...

John has been involved in community pharmacy for most of his professional life. Until he sold up, he owned the busiest pharmacy in New Zealand. He started the first "Dispensary Only" pharmacy in New Zealand which for a long time was the biggest dispensary in New Zealand. John moved on to become a professional services provider through Comprehensive Pharmacy Solutions Ltd (CPSL) as a clinical advisory pharmacist. He holds a range of high profile positions within the pharmacy profession and in 2010 he gained an academic achievement in the form of a DPharm i.e a doctor of pharmacy degree from Auckland University. This degree is a new one in New Zealand. It differs from a PhD in the following way; a) To enter the programme you need a Masters degree in pharmacy with honours b) There is a 'taught year' which requires the student to undertake three intensive research projects pharmacy related. c) Then there is the researched thesis which is a PhD and marked as such, but restricted to 75,000 words compared with 100,000 words to  compensate for the other three research projects. John is the first New Zealand pharmacist to have completed this new degree.

The Pharmacy Council recently promoted a discussion document to encourage feedback from the health care environment on the impending legislative changes that are intended to provide the opportunity for pharmacists to prescribe.
The proposed legislation will enable suitably qualified postgraduate educated and skilled clinical pharmacists to prescribe from the drug tariff for patients under their care.
These pharmacists will have to work as part of a primary health care team and it is expected they will become an integral part of that team.
All very exciting for our profession to witness that there is a recognition that pharmacists are capable of stepping up to the mark and are worthy of greater responsibilities.

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Unfortunately the consultation document was not worded terribly well and in some places the ambiguity could have been interpreted to mean that any pharmacist might apply for prescribing rights.
Even though it was stated that ‘owners’ of pharmacies would not be able to practice in this way due to conflicts of interest, it wasn’t absolutely clear that community pharmacists per se, would not be able to prescribe.

The general practitioners in their collective response fairly pointed out these inconsistencies and took the opportunity to affirm their complete opposition to community pharmacists gaining any prescribing rights whatsoever.

They felt that the commercialism of community pharmacy and its separation from the health care team did not equip pharmacists working in this environment for the responsibilities associated with prescribing or the ability to work closely and collaboratively with general practice.

This enunciated division of pharmacists’ roles by general practice medicine places pharmacists in a rather silly situation.
Trying to imply that we are all capable of providing the same services is not helping the advancement of the profession into new responsibilities and roles.

It is time we recognised the differences in streams of pharmacy practice and fostered those differences for those pharmacists choosing to work in whatever area of practice to achieve excellence in that practice and so be a credit for the whole profession.
Trying to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator, is holding the profession back and creating unnecessary obstacles for those of us who are breaking new ground for the profession.

We are not all the same, and certainly possess different skills at higher levels of practice.
I have never found any problem deferring with respect to my colleagues who are working in specialised areas such as oncology, mental health or paediatrics and find it difficult to perceive how we consider we all should fit into the same practice box.
I frequently have to defer to my community colleagues for the information they possess on drug availability.

Community pharmacy practice satisfies a majority of pharmacists but it is no longer representative of all practice areas.
The sooner we ceased being precious about acknowledging our differences, the better.

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