LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Ref: i2P E-Magazine, Issue 21, November 2003

Dear Neil,

I have been reading your informative newsletter for a year or so.
The articles are very interesting and I like the pharmacists perspective on various subjects you and co have presented.
I have to say that on this occassion I was quite alarmed by your choice of words to headline something that is obviously dear to your heart- the Woolworths proposal.
The headline read ' When Rape is Imminent'.
I thought, huh?
i2P E-mag must be doing a story on the thousands of girls/women and boy/ men who get sexually assaulted- which is my understanding of the word 'rape'.
If you wanted an eye catching headline well.... you achieved it.
Unfortunately, the odds of having one or more of your readers survive a sexual assault i.e. rape, is probably greater than you have ever considered.
I have nursed far too many people with horrific physical and psychological injuries as a result of traumatic, violent and vicious rape attacks.
So, however much pharmacists feel angst towards what is happening in the business world it will never, and I say never, be the same as the suffering inflicted on rape victims.

I would suggest an apology in your next newsletter to people like myself who have been offended by such a laissez faire use of the word 'rape'.

Nilva Egana

Dear Nilva,
I confess, that when I began writing that particular article, I was figuratively searching for an analogy that would convey some sense of feeling that pharmacists may experience, if they found themselves being assaulted (in a business sense) by an organisation such as Woolworths.
And I agree with you that what pharmacists may experience in a business sense could never match the suffering that rape victims have had inflicted upon them.
To Nilva, and any other reader who was offended by my choice of language, I sincerely apologise.
It was never my intent to add stress to an already distressed situation.
Thank you for drawing my attention to this matter.

Neil Johnston (Editor)

REF: All Community Pharmacists and the HIC

Will you put up your hand for change?
If so, write to the following and help change a bad H.I.C. regulation.
Concerted action can work!
Those older pharmacists will remember the old "Specified Purposes" regulation and how, with concerted action, Pharmacists worked to have it scrapped.
It was an unworkable situation.

The Hon Tony Abbott M.P., Minister for Health and Aging
The Hon Julie Bishop M.P., Minister for Aging
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Firstly, the background to the issue.
Pharmacists are daily asked to provide NHS Authority required items prior to the Authority being available.
This is especially true of Pharmacists servicing Aged Care where they provide complete multi-dose aids, but also can apply to retail Pharmacists.
Perhaps the Doctor is uncontactable.
These items are usually not something the patient can just stop taking until paperwork can be sorted.
If you are honest, you will admit that a workaround has to be found.
Great for the patient's drug complianace but not so great for you when the H.I.C. disallow the Authority script because it was supplied prior to Approval.
DON'T DO IT.
Let the patient go without.
Put the onus back on them.
The H.I.C. have now taken to disallowing ALL the repeats too, of that script, as you cannot issue repeats on an "owing prescription".
That could have set you back thousands of dollars!
As sure as hell the concession card holder who you helped will not understand or be in a position to pay.
The H.I.C. will however pay the cost of the repeats IF dispensed at another Pharmacy.
I call that an abuse of their Power over the first Pharmacist that they discriminate in this fashion.
By what logic does it make sense to regulate that a Pharmacist shall not provide an owing item if an Authority drug?
Surely the onus in providing an owing item with professional care, just like non-Authority drugs, is that the Pharmacist will be aware that if the script is not authorised for approval, then the item will be a private item.
The fact that there is a history of dispensing as an Authority gives the confidence that an Authority will be forthcoming.
The H.I.C. answer is to make a private script out of every supply if an Authority is not immediately available.
This is even though the patient as an Australian citizen and is entitled to
the full subsidy the H.I.C. would have provided.
Remember that the aged patient doesn't have the champion to fight their cause and ensure Authority scripts are there when needed.
ONE rule should apply- regulation of supply of an owing script should be the same for Authority or ordinary scripts.
The control of the timing of supply of Authority scripts, ahead of the need
to dispense, is OUT OF OUR CONTROL.
How did the H.I.C. make it a sin, when we conform to the wishes of the G.P., to provide the patient with continuity of doses.
I will even go further and say that the Signed Medication Chart should be all that Aged Care providers need to claim.
The introduction of Nurse Practitioners may see this initiative delayed for years to come.
I ask that if you are affected by Authority scripts being rejected, then please act now ,as I write to the Minister too, to put this case for sanity to prevail.

Name witheld for obvious reasons.
Concerned Pharmacist.

Editor's Comment:

I find it disturbing that a government agency deliberately sets out to negate its own reason for being (providing quality health care to sick people) by subverting a pharmacist's professional "duty of care" for that same group of people.
It would seem that any subterfuge to reduce payments to pharmacists by the HIC, does not need to carry a moral responsibility with it.
More disturbing is the fact that the pharmacist reporting the above situation fears reprisal.
The HIC has a history of creating situations like the above, and it is hoped that other pharmacists will lobby to contain this dictatorial attitude.
With an election looming in the New Year, and with Health already a prime election issue, this would be an appropriate time to add your weight to a campaign to create reform.

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