Pharmintercom tracks trends

NATIONAL president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia George Tambassis hosted the presidents and ceos of the national bodies for community pharmacy from the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and South Africa at Pharmintercom last week.

This grouping of community pharmacy leaders has been meeting since 1ϵ87 to share knowledge and build mutual understanding of the opportunities and threats facing community pharmacies in the English-speaking world, Tambassis explained in the Guild newsletter Forefront.

The Guild president identified common trends across the seven Pharmintercom countries.

There is increased corporatisation of pharmacy with more supply chain vertical integration, while many independent pharmacies choose to differentiate themselves from the “cheap, accurate and fast” corporate pharmacies, he said.

There is also a trend towards capitation and patient outcome based funding models, while evidence is mounting that healthcare by pharmacists utilising the full scope of their professional skills increases adherence and reduces costs, particularly hospital stays, while delivering better health outcomes.

Community pharmacies are growing to be the preferred health destination for treatment of minor ailments, general ill-health, and for preventative health, including immunisation, screening, smoking cessation and managing lifestyle related health risks, he added.

“With hospital and MBS costs ballooning, a targeted and evidence-based investment to enable pharmacists in community pharmacy to practice at the top of their profession in the full medicine management of patients with hypertension is a no-brainer,” Tambassis concluded.

Visit guild.org.au for more.