A conversation recently with a young pharmacist indicated that the understanding of a role beyond the standard dispense- review – monitor – manage – was pretty slim.
The knowledge is there but what to do with it is another matter.

This columnist used to belong to Apex Clubs in Darwin, Melbourne and Queanbeyan.
All gone now.

Is anybody missing them? No- they have just found other places to go- things to do – access to the ever mounting government departments with a community service function.
Now apply that to yourself.
Imagine that tomorrow you got a tap on the shoulder to say you were not needed anymore because a system was being put in place that would fully automate the dispensary and there would be no need for a pharmacist.
Role gone! – finished! – out on the pavement to find another job.
They simply did not need your skills and had no place for other pharmaceutical skills. The anti – supermarket ownership lobby would say without hesitation that it is what WILL happen if Woolworths had a pharmacy.
But don’t rush to conclusions.

Remember the story in this column back in April (http://archive.i2p.com.au/?page=site/article&id=416) when a story is told of a supermarket pharmacy that was providing the added value services.
Do not underestimate the power of critical mass to enable money to be used to add value to a dispensing service.

Pharmacy graduates have to be geared for more than a dispensing role.
If asked what else can you do have some answers, back it with experience and show a record of success.

The opportunities are there but unless taken up now they will not be there in a few years time.
So what is your career path beyond dispensing?

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald (26th August 2006) extolled the virtue of jobs in the pharmaceutical industry for science graduates.
“WITH THE BOOM in biotechnology and the resulting proliferation of new drugs on the market, the pharmaceutical industry is growing as never before, meaning more jobs for keen young science students.”

Pharmacy is just ONE of those. It does not mean a pharmacist has an edge over a microbiologist, pathologist, medical technician or a biochemist – if any of those take the advice offered by a person from the industry that young graduates should:-
“…go and work in the Department of Health, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, a poison centre, a pathology lab or get some corporate healthcare experience somewhere…”

No mention of a retail pharmacy or was that a “given”?
Maybe not – maybe the industry does not rate highly the retail shop experience.

Why are these highly technical computerized machines being developed that do everything but diagnose the condition and costing up to $200,000 when all that is needed is the right packet with a label.
The answer will be to satisfy Pharmacy Boards and Medicare Australia.
Well has anybody really tried and tested a seemingly achievable and simple solution.
Surely the onus of proof that a pharmacist is doing the check is with the Approved Pharmacy. Surely the onus of proof that the dispensing was done “at the premises of the Approved Pharmacy” is the same. It is time in this electronic age that the “premises” definition be extended to embrace all locations where the premises have control of the dispensing.

“Pharma-goss” will keep you updated on the move to vending machines being used for dispensing units at remote places.
That does not necessarily mean Bullmakanka or Timbuctoo!
It could be the next suburb or country town with no pharmacy but a pharmacist on duty at the other end of the machine one hour a day.
Lateral thinking is what is needed and unfortunately that is not always there in young pharmacists who are brilliantly trained to follow protocols but when a new protocol is needed because the old one is not working they are lacking in initiative.

Don’t let yourself become one of those.

In the meantime anyone interested in this project or anything else in this month’s column drop me an email.