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Pharmacy Daily Monday13th August 2012 T 1300 799 220 W www.pharmacydaily.com.au page 1
Monday 13 August 2012 Call 1800 036 367 or visit www.pharmacychoice.com.au
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THE Government is reaping hugerewards from the AprilPharmaceutical Benefits Schemereforms, with the latest datashowing the changes haveproduced a large drop in theaverage cost to the Government ofPBS prescriptions. The data comes from the firstmonth to include the full impact ofthe April price reductions, June2012. These reductions, according tothe Medicines Partnership Australia,have seen a $5 drop in the averagecost of prescriptions – fallingfrom just over $44 to just over $39. “This is the clearestdemonstration yet of the significantsavings being reaped by thegovernment through the Expandedand Accelerated Price Disclosureprogram,” the MedicinesPartnership said. “It is further confirmation that PBSexpenditure is being kept well undercontrol,” the Partnership added. Contained within the MedicinesPartnership’s PBS Scorecard forAugust, the June 2012 data foundthat the volume of prescriptionsrecorded in the month was 75%higher than the same month in2011, and was 30% higher than anyother month in history.
This remarkable result has howeverbeen downplayed by the MedicinesPartnership, which said that it “isclearly not a true reflection ofactual dispensing activity incommunity pharmacies in June”. “Detailed analysis of the datareveals that the Department ofHuman Services (DHS, formerlyMedicare Australia) slowed downtheir average processing times inthe nine months to April 2012,” thePartnership said. “The backlog of pharmacy claimswas rapidly cleared by DHS in Mayand June. “This volatility is likely to haveresulted in 2011-12 financial yeargrowth being overstated in theofficial figures,” the Partnershipadded. MEANWHILE, the MedicinesPartnership has used the dataconfusion to argue that the nationneeds to have clear, agreed,publicly available measures ofvolume and price growth in thePBS, so that Government, industryand all stakeholders can make“meaningful comparisons and drawreliable projections”.
NPS August Radar THIS Month’s NPS Radar reviewsrasagiline (Azilect) for Parkinson’sdisease, as well as the PRODIGY study. Rasagiline is a new monoamineoxidase type-B inhibitor to treatsymptoms of Parkinson’s disease. “Rasagiline may be suitable forpeople presenting with less severeParkinson’s disease symptoms orlevodopa-associated motorcomplications and is an option forpeople when side effects restrictthe use or dopamine agonists orentacapone,” said NPS clinicaladviser Dr Philippa Binns. The drug however, according toBinns, may not be suitable forpeople already on antidepressants,and in instances where this is apossibility, Binns recommendsspecialist advice be sought. Meanwhile Binns also used Radarto comment on the PRODIGY studywhich reviewed the duration ofdual antiplatelet therapy. “The study highlights the need fora review of dual antiplatelettherapy at 12 months,” she said. “For most people the benefit oftreatment beyond this period maynot be sufficient to offset the risk ofa major bleed,” she added. The latest edition of Radar alsoincludes info on PBS listing changesto synthetic infant formulas forprotein intolerances; as well as inforelating to the bone mineral densityT-score cut-off changed in thedemosumab osteoporosis PBS listing. See www.nps.org.au/radar.
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Monday 13 August 2012
Weekly CommentWeekly CommentWeekly Comment
Welcome to PD’sweekly commentfeature. Thisweek’s contributoris Roma Cecere,GM for PatientCare division of GuildLink.
Recording of ClinicalInterventions in
Pharmacy
EDITORS Bruce Piper and Amanda Collins EMAIL [email protected] ADVERTISING Magda Herdzik EMAIL [email protected] page 2
Under the provisions of the 5th
Community Pharmacy Agreement(5CPA) Australian pharmaciesbegan the recording of ClinicalInterventions on 1 July 2012. As defined in the 5CPA ProgramSpecific Guidelines ‘A ClinicalIntervention is a professionalactivity undertaken by a registeredpharmacist directed towardsimproving the quality use ofmedicines by patients. It may resultin a recommendation for a changein the patient’s medication therapy,means of administration and/ormedication-taking behaviour.’ In January 2012, Dr MichaelOrtiz compared the rates ofclinical interventions recorded inthe PROMISe III Study to theclinical interventions recorded inthe GuildCare software, with theresults of the study published inthe Australian Pharmacist,‘Pharmacy Practice Incentives –increase in clinical interventions incommunity pharmacies’ June 2012. Dr Ortiz presented 12 months ofresults at the recent HealthInformatics Society of Australia(HISA) conference reporting thatthe GuildCare pharmaciesrecorded over 900,000 clinicalinterventions, with a largemajority of CIs (97%) accountingfor the DOCUT categories. The rates of CI/pharmacy/monthincreasing from 11 in July 2011 toan average of 61 per pharmacyper month at the end June 2012. This confirms Dr Ortiz’sprediction at 6 months, aspharmacies become more familiarwith the classification system andwith the software they’ll recordmore clinical interventions. See www.guildcare.com.au.
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DEMENTIA has been named as aNational Health Priority Area, withthe Minister for Mental Health andAgeing saying the condition ispredicted to be the leading cause ofdisability in less than four years. “Today 280,000 Australians livewith dementia and by 2050 thatfigure will have risen to more than1 million,” he said. “This presents major challengesfor health and aged care services,”he added. The move, announced last week,will see dementia designated as theninth National Health Priority Area,and is likely to enhance thedevelopment of a new NationalFramework for Action on Dementia. This designation comes aspredictions pip that spending ondementia beyond 2060 will outstripthat of any other condition. “We expect dementia spending totop $80 billion by 2062-63,” Butlertold a group of health ministers lastweek. “But early diagnosis has beenshown to have significant potentialbenefits for both the person withdementia and their carers andfamily, including improvements toquality of life and reducing careburden,” Butler added. MEANWHILE Butler also used theannouncement to spruik theGovernment’s Living Longer LivingBetter package. “We’re introducing a newDementia Supplement in home andresidential care, improving hospital
and primary care for people withdementia and putting a big effortinto reducing the time betweensymptoms and diagnosis,” he said.
Smiles make the change IN celebration of Oral HealthMonth this month and Australia’sSmile for Change campaign, Colgateis urging Australians to ‘like’ itsfacebook.com/colgateaustraliaFacebook Page and explain whythey would like to sponsor adisadvantaged child. The 20 most creative responseswill be rewarded with the chance tosponsor a disadvantaged Australianchild for one year, funded by Colgate.
Heart disease debate THE increased risk of diabetesmay be outweighed by the benefitsof a reduction in the risk of heartdisease when taking cholesterollowering statins, according toresearch published in The Lancet. The study found that patientswith at least one risk factor fordiabetes were 28% more likely todevelop diabetes when usingstatins, but were still 39% less likelyto have a cardiovascular illness and17% less likely to die over the trialperiod. In addition those patientswithout diabetes risk factors saw a52% reduction in cardiovascularillness and no increase in diabetesrisk.
Dementia is now a priority
IS that an arachnid in your ear? It is the stuff nightmares aremade of, but for one woman, MsLee, nightmares became a realitywhen doctors found a spider hadset up shop inside her ear. It is believed that the arachnid mayhave entered Lee’s ear five daysbefore its discovery as she slept. Lee took herself to the doctorafter five days of “ear irritation”,and was shocked to learn thatrather than a scratch, an infectionor a mite, the cause was a aneight legged, two fanged spider. Initially plans were to remove thespider using tweezers, howeverthis plan was ditched as her medicalteam did not want to risk thearachnid biting Lee, burrowingfurther down in her ear canal, ordigging its leg barbs into her skin. Instead the team used a salinesolution to flush the unwantedsquatter out. Fortunately for Lee theoperation went well, and shewalked away from the ordeal witha rather disturbing tale to tell. Doctors posit that the spidercrawled into Lee’s ear because it waswarm, moist, sheltered and dark.
VOLCANIC ice shelf? A NZ navy ship sailing around1,000 from kiwi shores wasshocked to come across a hugechunk of solidified lava (pumice),which strongly resembled an iceshelf, moving up and down withthe ocean’s swell. "The rock looked to be sittingtwo foot above the surface of thewaves and lit up a brilliant whitecolour in the spotlight,” saidLieutenant Tim Oscar. “It looked exactly like the edgeof an ice shelf [and it was] theweirdest thing I've seen in 18years at sea,” he added. It is believed that the pumiceoriginated from a recently activeunderwater volcano near NZ.
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Jason Cockman, Currumbine Pharmacy and newsagency.
