Pharmacists are an untapped resource
Published on: Thursday, October 23, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Pharmacists are an untapped resource who are able and more than willing to step into the medication management role.Award-winning Gerard Stevens, 68, a registered, practising pharmacist from Sydney, New South Wales, said they are the most accessible and visited health professionals, when met at the recent 25th FAPA Congress. "It has been said that pharmacists have hard-earned qualifications and skills that are the least utilised when compared to all the professions.
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"Medication compliance is well-known to be a major problem but there is much room for improvement. This is where pharmacists can make their greatest contribution to community health with focus on patient care."Hence, the theme of the congress – Expanding the Pharmacists' Roles in Wellness and Sustainable Health – is most apt," he said after presenting a paper on Innovative Pharmacy Practice Through Cutting Edge Robotic Technology at a plenary session. Speaking from experience, Stevens said the pharmacist and the doctor can work in harmony, and he interacts well with the doctor."After all, the pharmacist has to follow the doctor's prescription and seek confirmation or clarification if unclear. "At the compliance level, we see in Australia that there is a rapport that comes from the doctors and the pharmacists because the only person that really matters is the patient. And if we all stop looking at each other and start looking in the one direction, then why shouldn't we all talk and cooperate?
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"When a doctor prescribes drugs, sometimes they (drugs) interact with each other. So part of the role of the pharmacist is to look at the two drugs and say, 'Do these work together or not?' And if he is worried, he rings the doctor because the focus is always on that patient. If we lose focus on where our focus is, there is no point doing anything," he elaborated.According to Stevens, dispensing separation has always been practised in Australia. "Dispensing separation lands up saving the Government a lot of money while the pharmacists end up with a more expanded role and services," he added.
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While conceding that the dispensing separation issue will not be easily solved in some countries because of entrenched practices, Stevens is optimistic that if pharmacists with five years of education were given more opportunities, they would be able to play the medication management role as they are enthusiastic and very well-qualified.Stevens said it is understandable that initially there would be some concerns about the separation but he reckoned that when the pharmacists are properly managing the dispensing, we might find that the overall cost of drugs will drop. "That is the ultimate goal," he said.Giving an example, he said studies conducted by the Australian Government have proven that if people take their medication correctly, the overall health cost is less.He cited the Webstercare's Webster-pak system in Australia (using the blister pack system) as an example of a medication management system (involving pharmacists), saying most of the recommendations come from doctors."A medication management system such as Webster-pak can help a patient achieve a better health outcome through improved compliance with the medication prescribed by the doctor. For instance, older people are able to remain independent and stay at home for longer," he said.According to Stevens, the Australian Government decided to introduce a subsidy into the Veterans Affairs Division (which pays for everything associated with medication, physiotherapy, the hospital, etc)."You can actually measure the lowering in the health costs and that's what happens in Australia. For this reason, the Government has funded Veteran Affairs because it realises that the investment in having a pharmacist doing a Webster-pak keeps the cost overall down. And if you keep a person from hospital one day, you save AUD1800 a day."So that's an economic benefit apart from other benefits where people are feeling better, more lively to work and live better with their family," he shared.Stevens is the Founder cum Managing Director of Webstercare, the pioneers of blister pack medication packaging. It has been recognised as one of Australia's top 10 innovative companies.Medicines are packaged in a weekly pack so that you take your tablets and capsules at the right time and in the right combination. Webster-pak is a safe and simple pack to use. The tablets or capsules are sealed in a disposable blister pack which is inserted into a plastic reusable folder. When it is time to take your medication, the blister pack is pushed out from the blister well in the folder.The Webstercare Webster-pak Community is ideal for servicing community patients. The complete medication profile (including drug, dose and description) is printed on the back of the pack."We have got probably 300,000 to 400,000 people in Australia getting Webster Packs every week. Some 3,200 of the 5000 pharmacies in Australia use Webster Packs to help customers remember to take their medication. It's phenomenal. "The pharmacist takes the doctor's prescriptions and dispenses the medication into a blister pack. Which means the doctor can spend more time giving patients good advice and treating them as opposed to just trying to sort out what drugs they are taking," Stevens explained.In 2010, he was awarded the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA)-Life Time Achievement Award.Personally, he feels that he has more to offer as a pharmacist, so he created a medication system for the Aboriginal community in Australia."I designed a way to help them take their medication. Over a period of about three years, their measured compliance was about 10pc (very low) but after three years, it was about 70pc."So if people take their medication, then they have got a really good chance of getting well. And people have got to understand what the medication is for and why they need to take it because if you have got high blood pressure, you don't feel it. "But you have to take the medication because 70pc of people who have strokes, suffer high blood pressure. I mean it's pretty significant," the pharmacist pointed out.Earlier in his presentation, Stevens said efforts over time to reduce the workload and yet maintain the full benefits to the consumer have led to development of robotic packing machines to assist in the packing process. "These technology advances are proving extremely valuable to pharmacy. High accuracy, combined with productivity improvements and lower risk, reduces costs and makes the service more readily available," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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