Edition 24 Newsletter

Welcome to edition #24, and to a new columnist, Brett Clark of ePharmacy fame. For those who are not familiar with Brett, he runs a professional online pharmacy as a division of his Calamvale Pharmacy in Queensland.
In his inaugural column he talks about finding your own niche in the pharmacy marketplace and gives first-hand experience in setting up an online enterprise.
We promised previously that we would be recruiting additional writers, and can now lay claim to writers based in most of the Australian states and territories, with the exception of South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT (Western Australia is coming on stream shortly). These gaps will be filled as we endeavour to be a national publication in as many ways as we can. We may even aspire to become an e-journal as content quality, variety and volume is expanded.
We also received a response from our last edition article on the structure of consultant pharmacy in Australia. Leone Coper, National Director of the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacists (AACP) has responded with a letter containing some expanded information that many pharmacists would find interesting. Her letter is published under "Letters to the Editor" and you will find the link in the article index.

We note that Fauldings is now being publicly reported as being up for sale with a price tag of A$2 billion. Computachem E-Newsletter first reported this in
November 2000 and January 2001.
Pity the price was not in American dollars, because the devalued Australian dollar seems to be delivering Australian assets to global companies at bargain rates.
It is little wonder that there is so much cynicism directed towards competition policy, because it directs wealth towards the "big end of town" and then out of the country.
Makes you think that there really is an international conspiracy to devalue the Australian dollar, and other currencies, when there appears little reason economically for this to happen. Certainly the consumer is the last to benefit, as no policy generated so far appears to have reduced retail prices.

Rollo Manning has become disenchanted with the "patched-up" job of a pharmacist, and wants to see it reinvented. Read what he has to say and see if you can give him a hand for future articles.
This edition also features the subject of privacy over two extensive articles. We have all been so busy trying to lift our game in other areas, that we have not noticed developments in privacy legislation, and some of the alarming side-effects of not being prepared with policies and strategies. Pharmacists are encouraged to bookmark these articles for continuing reference.
Jon Aldous is back with his series on education and looks at what courses, and their cost, are available currently. Whether we like it or not, lifetime learning is upon us and we should be making appropriate choices now.
Leigh Kibby has weighed in with an article on conflict in the workplace, and although lifted from a corporate setting, you will see your own environment mirrored in the happenings described.
Roundup, our guest columnist for rural and remote issues, postulates how pharmacists could use research grants to boost the profile of pharmacy in the "bush".
Finally, the irrepressible Roy Stevenson is back with some hilarious experiences out there in locumland. Roy enjoys humour and interacting with people, and is establishing a very professionally managed locum service in eastern NSW.
He has asked me to circulate a special message, to see if he is able to re-establish contact with someone previously associated with him in an informal bulletin, known as "Krusty's Korner", which was performed on the old Amfac Intranet. Roy, of course, was "Krusty".
The message reads:
"Krusty is seeking Inka The Swede. If anyone - maybe Anne-Two-Heads is on here - she knows where Inka is. Anyone who remembers the Amfac Intranet will know Inka intimately. She is a good sort, and I would like to know she is still out there."
Anyone who knows of "Inka's" whereabouts, please contact Roy at
roy.stevenson@hunterlink.net.au

Following our article discussing the structure of the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacists, we received comment from Leone Coper, National Director of the AACP.
Her letter is published for the interest of the wider pharmacy population.

"Further to your interesting article about consultant pharmacy and your suggestions for modifying the AACP structure.
The AACP Board members at the moment include two accredited pharmacists with both aged care facility and domiciliary experience and two members with long experience in hospital pharmacy.
In addition, the Board is advised by a National Advisory Group (NAG).
The National Advisory Group is responsible for:
review and recommendations of the adequacy and appropriateness of the accreditation system and its refinement and improvement advice to the Board on appropriate reaccreditation processes overseeing the assessment programs identification, implementation and evaluation of education, information and support programs advice on design and implementation of accreditation processes for other professional services or aspects of pharmacy practice advice on new developments and trends which will impact on accreditation advice on any relevant matters advice on specific matters referred to it by the Board.

There are 12 NAG members, and five corresponding members, who are either very experienced consultant pharmacists or academic pharmacists.
This is a dynamic group which provides the type of input into Board considerations you envision.
I consider that the AACP is, rather, held back by charter and resource constraints.
Every time a new organisation is set up, the base costs need to be covered by members.
This results in increasing costs for pharmacists and I am keen to have as many as possible of consultant pharmacists' needs met through their core organisations.
I work a great deal with the parent bodies to progress this.
There are established support groups in most states and I would be delighted to assist accredited pharmacists form more local support groups also.
Just to clarify, through its charter, the AACP does not develop standards (that is the role of PSA), or training.
Good luck with your ventures.

Leone Coper,
Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacists

N.B The original article commented on can be found at http://www.computachem.com.au/enewsletter/ed23c.html

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