Editorial

From the desk of the editor

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.

read more
open full screen

Columns

Recent Comments

Click here to read...

Past Editions

Volume 1 Number 1
Volume 1 Number 2
Volume 1 Number 3
Volume 1 Number 4
Volume 1 Number 5
Volume 1 Number 6
Volume 1 Number 7
Volume 2 Number 1
Volume 2 Number 2
Volume 2 Number 3
Volume 2 Number 4
Volume 2 Number 5
Volume 2 Number 6
Volume 2 Number 7
Volume 2 Number 8
Volume 2 Number 9
Volume 2 Number 10
Volume 2 Number 11
Volume 3 Number 1
Volume 3 Number 2
Volume 3 Number 3
Volume 3 Number 4
Volume 3 Number 5
Volume 3 Number 6
Volume 3 Number 7
Volume 3 Number 8
Volume 3 Number 9
Volume 3 Number 10
Volume 3 Number 11
Volume 4 Number 1

i2P Archives

Health Politics

EPublications

Click here for a list of epublications

A SUMMARY OF PHARMACISTS POTENTIAL, PROVIDING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES.

• Printer-friendly version
• Send to friend
• PDF version
• Share

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.

Over the past year I have written about the need to recognize and remunerate pharmacists appropriately in order that pharmacy can take a necessary step forward in the new Millenium. Following are some points that are worthy of note.

open this article full screen

2. The government is throwing money at community pharmacy to shift the income dependance from dispensing to the provision of 'other' services. These services will depend on employed pharmacists who are underpaid and unlikely to see any extra benefit from extra training and responsibilities undertaken to provide these services. Meaning that these services are going to be very difficult to implement 

3. Why is it that arguments about pharmacy practice, always centre around the dichotomous community pharmacy model where there are huge conflicts of interest When professional and evidence based logic when undertaking a medication review determines that the complimentary medicines the patient has recently purchased will be of no benefit to them - it is going to be extremely difficult to convince an owner that your role is going to add value to their business!  Do we just need to recognise that the current model of retail pharmacy practice has now reached its use by date, and we now need to move into other areas of practice?

4. I think it is reasonable to accept that pharmacists are the only health professionals with a focus on medicines - pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacoeconomics etc. It is the pharmacist who has sufficient background knowledge and training to move into areas concerned with optimising individual patients' medication while working to reduce the very costly, in terms of health and money, drug related illness and death. Some of us are already successfully and economically developing new roles in primary and secondary care that are accepted and embraced by the medical profession and patients. But -  we are already faced with a great need for more appropriately skilled pharmacists to work in these areas.

5. Pharmacist prescribing is about to become a reality, but this will only work if undertaken in collaboration with medical practitioners. There will be a whole range of new responsibilities and opportunities opening up for those pharmacists willing to go the extra mile and gain the appropriate extra skills.

6. Most importantly, the salaries for newer roles should be independently negotiated and not reflect on the appalling salary scale for employed retail pharmacists. To date we have managed to establish this status with varying degrees of success, but it is difficult to prove one's worth when the bulk  of the profession seems comfortable with incomes well below that of tradesmen. In Wellington many Personal Assistants earn more than a community pharmacist.

In 1996 I was very involved with the creation and establishment of Comprehensive Pharmaceutical Care in New Zealand. At that time I came to believe that we could take every pharmacist out of community pharmacy and effectively employ them in new roles working with GPs, nurses and other health care professionals to maximise the benefits of medication use in this country. I have not changed my mind on this!!

The profession needs to wake up!!!

Clinical Newsfeed

Click here to read more...

Research Reports

Practice Development

Information Technology

Indigenous Health

Preventive Medicine

i2P Alliance Partners