Reflecting on 2024

So I think obviously that was a huge deal and I think pharmacy, if you look at it with a degree of distance, I suppose did very well out of the eighth agreement. So I think that would have to be a top success for pharmacy as an industry. I suppose if you look at it as a business, I think they've done very well out of it and I think pretty much all the industry experts I've spoken to would have said the same. This was a very good agreement that was much better than what many people were thinking.

So I think the Guild, Mr. Tassone has done a great job with his negotiations and his team and I think Trent and co. should be really pleased with what they've got there. And I think all pharmacy owners particular should be thankful. And I suppose the other thing that you can say is the success is the continued expansion of scope of practice and the continued evidence that pharmacists in general can do what they're now being

allowed to do. Obviously interestingly, I was, before we started talking, I was looking through a list we got a month or so ago of our top 25 stories for the year in terms of readership.

And the very top one further down the list than I thought it was the very top one was pharmacies claim over 227,000 through NIPVIP in January. So obviously the NIPVIP program for vaccinations began at the beginning of the year and I mean that showed already the level of interest in pharmacy, but also the level of, well, the sheer number I suppose the vaccinations that pharmacists or pharmacies are

now doing. I mean that was obviously that's been the banner, the flagship or whatever you want to call it, of expanded scope of practice. And I can still remember when that was kicking off and doctors groups saying there was going to be people collapsing outside pharmacies because they wouldn't be able to cope with it. And obviously it's been a huge success and I think that's opened the doors with governments and regulators to see what else pharmacy can do.

And I think this year, 2023 and 2024 probably as a flow on from the pandemic, we've seen that a whole range of different programs in different states and now kicking off in a whole range of different areas, UTIs, lots of other point of care testing and whatever that are all just sort of kicking off around the place to show pharmacy or to show people what pharmacy can actually do. And I think pharmacists are doing those very well.

So I think that would definitely have to be a huge tick, but I think they're probably the biggest successes really. I mean there's lots of other big stories, but whether they'd consider them a success, but I think they'd definitely be the top of my list. I think from an individual pharmacist perspective, the fact that you can now do so much more and so many more things are being tested and are on the way.

Now there may be other issues that come from that of course, but I think you're looking at the fact that pharmacists are proving they can do these things safely and to patient benefit is a massive success. And then in the community sector that's been underpinned financially by a very good agreement. So I think that'd be the top two for me.

Obviously there was a lot of pressure last year in particular from the CAPS group who were very vocal in what they thought should be happening. And obviously in New South Wales they managed to unseat a number of look quite long-term Guild state councilors, including obviously the president David Heffernan, which showed I suppose the volatility of the New South Wales pharmacy landscape, but also the level of feeling among members.

I think in retrospect, David was doing a very good job, and it's probably a bit ironic that not long after the election results came in, the New South Wales government announced again a program of expanded scope of practice, which was a large part due to his negotiation. So interesting. But obviously that's been a volatile issue, which has now I suppose died off since the agreement.

Another big issue that's been ongoing all year, of course is the merger between Chemist Warehouse Group and Sigma, which obviously has huge ramifications directly for a lot of pharmacies, of course, who are in Sigma owned banner groups, but also for the broader sector in general, given what a massive powerhouse that promises to be. I mean that certainly provoked a lot of comments from readers as you could imagine, some of which I probably couldn't recite and some of which we couldn't approve.

But no, I mean there's certainly been a lot of debate around that, about what the significance of that will be to people who, I mean obviously the entities themselves have said there'll be no detrimental impacts. I mean that obviously remains to be seen. Who knows what will be the end result of it. But I mean it's certainly obviously a huge story for the future of the community sector.

Well obviously again, scope of practice, I think that's obviously one thing that's very volatile because it does obviously, while on the one hand people are like, this is great, we can now practise what we learnt at university and what we think we are trained to do. On the other hand, of course that brings the issue, which a lot of our readers constantly point out of, well that's great, but what about our remuneration? What about our working conditions?

Does that mean more work for the same pay or work that's more complicated and time consuming? How does that relate to the workflow in the pharmacy? So there's all these other issues which are still very much to play out, I would think. And that I suspect will a big story going forward. And also I've recently been at the Medicines Management Conference and obviously in the hospital sector there's a whole other range of issues there,

some of which are quite related. Obviously with charting, giving, prescribing rights, workflow, the increasing specialization in that sector, we do get quite a few comments from readers around the significance of those. So yeah, I mean I think, I'm just trying to think what else. There's been a lot of comments on this year. Oh goodness, certainly been a lot on Chemist Warehouse and Sigma, but yeah, I think they're probably the main ones that leap out at me that have been ongoing issues.

I think that's something everyone in pharmacy should be really proud of. I mean, we recently ran our reader vote campaign on advanced practice pioneers and that as well as people you'd expect to be mentioned like Professor Lisa Nisson, people like that. There was a lot of other people I'd actually not heard of who were mentioned in there and you think, God, these people have done some really, really innovative, amazing things.

And I think that's something that we often, I think that's something that probably gets lost in the 24/7 run of stories. We often hear the complaints and the negativity. We deal with a lot of stories where someone's being suspended for something or has happened or there's a fight over resources, the usual stories you get in every field. And I think it was an interesting thing to sit down and look at that and to see the people that people voted for and nominated for that.

It was really inspiring to think that there's so many people out there who are just going, look, I'm not interested in the politics of things. I'm just going to get on and do what I think is important to do. That's something that I think having been in pharmacy or worked around the pharmacy space since about 2001, to see where it's come to now from there is it's incredible really.

So I think that's something everyone in pharmacy should be really proud of in terms of AJP look, I think firstly, I hope that we're still meeting what our reader's needs are. I hope they are. I think they are. Please tell me if they're not. One thing we have tried to do and we're looking to do more in future, is to target people more directly. I mean, we've started that with our AJP Select Hospital and Credentialed Pharmacist e-newsletter.

That was an area that we identified as not being all that well covered in the AJP Daily. Basically when you've got a limited range of stories, it is unfortunate, but you tend to sort of favour the ones that get the most clicks. And I know that does sound like we're chasing clicks. It's not really, but it's just what happens.

It's unfortunately the way of the world and there are lots of worthy stories that do get lost in the mix because you've got to fill five or six spaces and you might have 10 stories we often do. And so that was an area of pharmacy we identified as not being well serviced by anyone really including us. So we launched that newsletter as a fortnightly and made it an opt-in newsletter and it's now ballooned up. I think we've got about 3000 people reading it every fortnight now.

It gets massive readership rates. It is been a real success and I'm really proud of the way that's grown and it's opened up whole other avenues of readership for us and also other avenues of commenters for us that we've met a lot of people who we probably wouldn't have dealt with very often before that came to pass. So I think that's something I'm very proud of with AJP and I think that's something we're looking to do hopefully more in the future.

I think there's other areas that we could address people who are doing innovative things in the pharmacy business space or looking at it and areas like that. So I think there's lots of other areas we can look at. But yeah, that's something I'm definitely proud of for AJP and we're always looking to identify and meet what we think our readers need. So yeah.

I don't know what's happening from week to week to be honest, Carlene. But no, I think some things have come to pass as I thought they would, but I honestly did think there would be more argie-bargie over the agreement and I did not think that pharmacy would get some of the outcomes it did get from that. I think I really did think it would be a lot tougher. I thought the relationship with the government was bad and that it wouldn't have come to pass as it did. It's

interesting the way it did come about. I mean, it kind of almost, I don't know if I should be saying this or not, but it seemed to me after a while it was kind of like the government were like, well, we need to just get this one done and out of the way. And I don't know, obviously the Guild had made a very good case and they got a good result out of it. I mean, I know there's still in that space, there's more to come with agreements and I suppose we'll talk about that later

when we look forward to 2025. But yeah, I think that was probably, if I'm to think about anything, that's the thing I'm most surprised about. I really did think there'd be a lot more to-ing and fro-ing over that. It did seem to be, I'm sure it wasn't very easy to Anthony and his team, but looking from the outside, it did in the end come to a really good outcome and I think it seemed to be a lot smoother than I would've thought it would've been.

I mean, obviously the fact that PSA obviously now has ownership's probably not the term, but responsibility I suppose, for administering those non CPA programs like NIP V and various others. I mean, it'll be interesting to see what comes from that. I think that's definitely something which will make a big impact on people going forward. Obviously when you think of, there's been lots of questions over the H-M-R-R-M-M-R program and its level of funding.

So now that's removed from where it's been for the past few years and is under the auspices of PSA in this new soon to be negotiated agreement or currently being negotiated agreement. It'll be interesting to see what comes to that next year.

And that's definitely something that will be a huge impact. Think, I mean, obviously as I mentioned before too, Sigma and Chemist Warehouse, I think it will be interest really fascinating to see what plays out from that, what will be the ramifications because obviously it does seem in the community pharmacy space that we're seeing the development of two or three super banner groups. Is that a term? I don't know,

can I coin that one? But where there's going to be these entities almost, and I think we'll probably see increasing fragmentation between those, some pharmacies moving into those big groups like the expanding Terry White Chemmart group and those groups that are part of the Sigma and Chemist warehouse camps. And then you sort of, I suppose, innovative smaller banners like Pharmacy 777 Group and Capital

Chemist and people like that. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that landscape plays out going forward, I think. What else can we look forward to in 2025? Well, I think another thing it'll be interesting to see certainly will be the, as we get more and more results through from the expanded scope of practice trials in different states. And I have heard, I don't know how true this is, but I have heard in some cases there's been issues in recruiting

people into those or pharmacies. I mean, hopefully people are on board and want to get involved, but yeah, we'll be fascinating to see how they come through. I know at Medicines Management there were a couple of posters that illustrated the results of some trials in South Australia and they seemed really

positive looking at those. So yeah, I mean that'll be fascinating to see what comes from those because obviously that will inform then the next steps in terms of funding for those programs at a state level and possibly at a national level and whether other trials are performed. So I think they're probably the main things that are top of mind. I suppose the other thing, one thing that, it's interesting, it's an issue that we always think is really important,

but the story never really clicked that well. But I think is it related issues, particularly IT safety? I think,

I don't know. It's something that always freaks me out, but it doesn't seem to resonate very well with our readers, but I think it probably should more and more every year because there are so many growing security concerns and healthcare is the most highly targeted area, and I think that's definitely something people should be on top of more and more is, it's a bit of a downer, but I think we definitely need to be on top of that because all sorts of

ramifications that can come from an IT breakdown. So I think probably something else I'd mention, but yeah, it's interesting people never really read those stories. Maybe we need to look at the headlines. I don't know.

And that's another big step which I should have mentioned before actually is the changing in nomenclature of the SHPA to AdPha, which is a big step. Sorry to step back, but I probably should have mentioned that earlier. It wasn't my notes. I don't know why I didn't mention it. But yeah, I mean think that's a huge step and that speaks again to the expansion of scope of practice and the opening up of all these sort of areas of

pharmacy. Also, it does tie into it how to prepare for 2025. There you go. Because obviously an ever expanding area is going to be that sort of middle ground I suppose if you want to call it that sits between the hospital pharmacy camp and the community pharmacy camp, these whole areas of people working in general practice, working in aged care people doing things like H Rs and all that sort of all those extra services and newer areas of practice for pharmacy.

And obviously that's informed the move of SHPA into AdPha and the opening up also of their college where they're awarding post-graduate qualifications for expertise in particular specializations. So obviously that's something I think that's going to happen more and more.

It's interesting because I think going forward I do get the sense, and a lot of people have told me this, on the one hand you are going to have all these increasing areas of specialization for pharmacists to move into, but on the other hand also, there's going to be more and more in the future people who are moving between all these different areas of practice who are going to be working in a hospital but also may do some community pharmacy work who are also working

in aged care. I think there's going to be, the flexibility is going to be there increasingly in the future. And I think probably from what people tell me, that's definitely something that younger pharmacists are increasingly aware of, and I think that's something that's going to be there in the future. You probably won't spend all your life in a community pharmacy or looking

to go and buy a pharmacy. Less and less people are doing that, but more and more people are looking to around different areas of practice, and I think that's going to be something that everyone's going to have to get used to going forward and prepare for. And I think that's probably a good thing, really. I mean, perhaps not if you're an owner looking for staff who want to stay there, but no, I think it is going to be a good thing for pharmacists.

I mean the options of work are going to increasingly expand and I think you just have to be versatile and flexible and interested in working in lots of different areas. I mean, I think that's the same for everyone. It's certainly the same for those of us in media these days as well. I mean, I think just be flexible and be aware of where the opportunities are. I think that's probably the key thing on an individual level that I'd end on. And as I said before, worry about your IT security.

I was looking at some overnight where people were, the sectors kind of on its last legs and it's fine. People always say things like that, but I think the mood definitely picked up and I know the UTS barometer picked that up as well. I think it gave people some renewed certainty. So I think that did answer some of the challenges. I think probably a lot of the challenges are what I just spoke about before, really in terms of flexibility, it's always difficult in a workforce, isn't it?

And if I can put my media hat on here, I was probably in the early to middle part of my career when digital media started happening and you get training in one area, which was print journalism or broadcast journalism. When I was at uni and starting my career, if you started in print, you were writing for print, it was a pretty structured path of what you did and where you went.

And then all of a sudden this huge great bloody disruptor got thrown into the middle of it and everyone was doing a bit of everything after that. You're writing for a magazine, but you're also writing for a newsletter. You spend all your day doing newsletter stories, then you have to find time to do a longer piece for the magazine. Then you're doing social media, then you're doing these days podcasts or videos or whatever it is been hugely disrupted. And

how do people respond to disruption? Some people get despondent, some people leave, some people embrace it, others just batten down the hatches and push through. And I think pharmacy has had that as well, of course. And I think in particular, it's probably hit a little bit later than it did with media, but I think we are sort of still at the end. No, the end's not the right term is it? We're still in the middle of that process now where things are changing.

There's been disruptors and there are going to be more and more disruptors in health. And I think that that has created that sense of, like I said before, whereas people, once I'm a hospital pharmacist, I'm a community pharmacist, I'm now going to buy a pharmacy. There was those areas where people went into and that is being thrown around

and thrown up in the air. And you'll get some people who have embraced the flexibility of being able to travel and be locums or do some work in a community pharmacy, but also do a couple of days wherever. People who want to work in aged care or are doing RS who want to work independently and be contracted. That is still working itself out. Obviously you've got factors within pharmacy that fight against that.

I think you've got the general move of society and of the health system will end up in a more flexible workforce than it is now. And I suppose that's just how people respond to that in pharmacy. That's even more magnified, I suppose, by the increasing feminization of the workforce. I mean, you yourself have young children and you have to had to deal with the implications of pregnancy and maternity leave and whatnot. And obviously in a workforce, what is it now, 61% female. I mean,

that's obviously a huge factor. And I suppose what I'm saying, the challenge there is the whole of pharmacy needs to, how does it approach this? I mean, I think there's been a kind of, I sense some reluctance to face some of the implications of that. And I think that will definitely play out over the next few years.

We already have workforce challenges in this sector, and I think unless the implications of the changing nature of work, the increasing feminization of pharmacy and the increasingly unstructured nature of, I suppose, pharmacists careers in terms of being able to move around and probably needing to move around more than they ever did in the past, I think those things are yet to play out. And we're in the early days of that.

So I think that's going to be a challenge for a lot of people going forward. I mean, obviously a lot of young pharmacists who come into this space won't know any different, will be like, great, this is fantastic. I can do a bit of this. I can do a bit of that, be brilliant. But if you're a bit older or sort of partway through your career, sometimes these things can be a massive issue for you, can't they? So I think that would be one of the biggest challenges I think pharmacy needs to

face. And I think there has been quite a lot of heads in sand over that issue or those issues. It's not one issue is it? But I think, yeah, that's definitely something that needs to be looked at.

I mean, it iss a massive issue and it's going to be a massive issue going forward. And it's so weird, isn't it? I mean, you think, again, a profession that's now heavily majority female and increasingly with females in senior roles, and it still doesn't seem to have generated much more talk. It's in a strange, really, I don't know.