Pharmacists furious with Chemist Warehouse dodgy Medscheck practices

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/news/latest-news/chemist-warehouse-s-medscheck-push-sees-store-do-3

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/news/latest-news/pharmacists-furious-with-cwh-medscheck-push

Chemist Warehouse (CWH) is at it again! News recently broke out about how one CWH store claimed 319 Medscheck in 2 weeks. And bragged about it. Head office pushing their stores or actually their underpaid pharmacists to do low-quality Medschecks. Easy $20,000 in their pocket.

This news made a lot of pharmacists in the industry furious. Furious because CWH is clearly doing a dodgy and getting away with it. One Medscheck should take about 20-30min to do. If you do the math, the pharmacy would have to be open more than 24 hours and employed a lot of pharmacists to do this.

I recently met someone who works at CWH and that's what they told me too. They had KPI they had to meet - they must do 10 Medscheck PER DAY. Wow, that's probably what I do in a month! Don't understand why Medicare still paid CWH without even auditting them. Its so suspicious but its like noone's doing anything!

Honestly, I think the the pharmacy industry is screwed and here's why:

• Medscheck has no benefit to us pharmacists. It only benefits the pharmacy owners. It just means more work and pressure for the average pharmacist. Not like they get paid anymore. Same wage. 
• CWH paying their pharmacists only $24 per hour. Casual rate, long hours, night and weekend shifts. Cityrail ticket person at the train station gets paid $60,000 per year salary with paid annual leave, sick leave and other benefits. 
• Pharmacists don't even get a proper lunch break. On call means we eat while we work. And some stupid law stating they must close the store if there is no pharmacist on the premise. 
• Employers talking about generics all the time. Lying to patients that we don't keep the brand anymore, made in Australia when its made in India, better quality not necessarily, less expensive when we charge them the same price as the original. Must have 80% generic conversion or your job is on the line. 
• Employers talking about Medscheck. Doing 5min Medscheck, and them getting the patient to sign. They don't even know what they are signing for.
• Discount chemists charging so little for medications. Amoxil Syrup is $6.50 at CWH. That's cheaper than the concessional price. Dispensing FEE zilch! Patients thinking other pharmacies are ripping them off as CWH charging so low. 
• Customers expecting everything in pharmacy is free. Free blood pressure checks, Free blood glucose checks, free weighing scales, free medical advice, free Webster packs........ We don't get paid by Medicare for each consultation we do. 
• Abused by customers who don't want to pay a surcharge for original brands coz other pharmacies are not charging me. Either they are lying or they really do that we don't know for sure. Patients think the pharmacies set PBS prices. Its Medicare but they don't believe us. 
• Very weak governing body The Guild. Hasn't done much. Their negotiations are crap. They don't know how to negotiate. Lets Medicare and government step all over us. Just not powerful enough. Look at the nurses union. They walk out on their job, protest and government gives them a payrise. What about us? The Guild puts out a stupid petition, gets everyone to sign it and gives it to the government who chucks it in the bin. No change. Problem is still there. Just forget about it and move on. 

Hycor ointment 0.5% and 1%

Lost-case doctor does it again.

She writes a script for Siguet Hycor Ointment 0.5% which was discontinued like 5-6 years ago. So I give her a call

Me: Dr, the hycor ointment 0.5% was discontinued 5-6 years ago. Only the 1% is available.

Dr: Are you sure? He said he only got it a few weeks ago. He showed me the old packet. 

Me: I'm looking at the old packet he is holding...... it says 1% 

Dr: Oh change it to 1% then.

Does she not know it was discontinued? Its been so many years. Especially when the patient has brought in an old packet, where you can actually LOOK at it. She can't seem to differentiate between 0.5% and 1%. 

Again, its another example that she is a doctor that prescribes whatever the patient tells her to prescribe without thinking or questioning. We need to get rid of doctors like that. *sigh* 

Most easiest Medicare paid consultation ever

A man comes into the pharmacy and gives me a piece of paper written by a doctor.

He went to see the doctor to ask what he can use to get rid of his wrinkles on his face. Guess what the doctor wrote on the paper?

"Anti-wrinkle cream"


Yep what a genius!

Customer thought I was ripping him off only to return later in defeat

A customer got really angry at me as I was not able to price-match the Diprosone OV ointment 30g he wanted. We sell it for $31.50 and he says he usually gets it for $25 at the chemist down the road.

I checked our cost-price, which was way above the $25 so I just couldn't match it. I told him we are the cheapest in the area and if we can't sell it for that price, don't know how other chemists can. I said the prices have gone up over the years.

Then he continues on and curses me for overcharging him and that he won't ever come here again coz we are ripping him off etc etc....

Well guess what. The same man came back today and I dispensed the script for him.

I cheekily said: Oh you know its not $25 right? We sell it for $31.50.
Him: Yeh what can I do? I need it so I'm gonna have to buy it.
Me: Oh you said you could get it at the other chemist for $25, you didn't end up getting it? Why's that?
Him: (getting frustrated) coz the prices have gone up and they can't do it for $25 anymore.......
Me: Is that so? Yeh I wasn't lying when I told you we're the cheapest in the area. Now you know.

Petitions don't work and gives a false sense of hope

Sick of those organisations who decide to start a petition every time there's a change that affects the industry. Stop being fake and optimistic. Petitions is not the solution to our problems. We need ACTION and STRATEGY and good LEADER. That we lack. We don't have a union (i think we do but not many members and they don't do anything). We got money-hungry governing bodies like PSA, The Guild who have ridiculous membership fees and they don't really fight for our benefits.

At times when needed, they come up with this wondrous solution, namely a petition, grab our names and our signatures then end of story. No follow-up, no solution. Change goes ahead. Because you know why? The change went ahead without our consultation, so why would a petition of our say change their mind?

Be realistic. Petitions just don't work. Gives fake hope and its a form of action that those organisations do just to fake their concern. They don't give a crap about us.

Don't waste your time signing it. I'm not.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia & Medscheck Caps

A lot of colleagues and friends in the industry ain't very happy with the recent changes the government and The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has put through, again without consultation with their pharmacy members.

Read their article here:

http://www.pharmacynews.com.au/news/latest-news/guild-to-assume-responsibility-for-hmr-payments-as

Each year, pharmacy owners pay heaps of $$$ to The Guild who is the representative body for community pharmacies. But each year, they continue to disappoint. I don't see why we need to continue paying them if their stupid proposals do not benefit us.

The changes Feb 2014:

MedsCheck and Diabetes Medscheck has been capped at 10 per pharmacy per month. So that means for small pharmacy with one pharmacist a script volume of less than 100 per day VS a large pharmacy with 7 pharmacists per day with a script volume of 600 ---- do they really think 10 MedsCheck per month is reasonable? You develop this service to help the greater good of the community, but after one year, you take it away from us and impose a stupid cap so you can keep some of the money? So if we think a patient would benefit from a Medscheck, guess we'll have to say no sorry and turn them away coz we have reached our quota this month.


The Guild is sly. Pretending to represent us, but then taking over Medscheck and imposing a cap. Seems to be could be some secret dealing under the table.

Why do pharmacists have to suffer when it comes to cost-cutting Medicare expenses?


Why don't they focus on doctors who prescribe inappropriately and charge inappropriately from Medicare? Let me tell you how Medicare can save some money easily just by auditing doctors:

• Abbocillin VK 150mg/5ml syrup, Ventolin Syrup, Celestone Cream, Aristocort Cream, Adrenaline injection all come in packs of 2 under PBS. Most doctors prescribe maximum PBS quantity even though the patient only needs to use it for a few days. Technically, one bottle is more than enough, but doctors are too lazy to change the quantity. What happens to the second unused bottle of syrup or box of cream? Goes into the bin unused when it expires after sitting in the cupboard at home for a long time. 
• Doctors charging Medicare even though they just print off a repeat script for their regular customers. I know doctors who refuse to write repeats just so the customer can go back and see them again for a new script so another Medicare swipe is required. I know the doctor does nothing because no doctor requests a blood test every month when the patient is only taking cholesterol tablets and the dose has been the same for the past year. 
• Micro consultations that only take 5min as patient's condition is not bad. Eg. sore throat, patient comes out with script for Nurofen. Seriously, that's another $60 of Medicare wasted. 
• Doctors prescribing items on PBS when the patient doesn't meet the criteria. Eg. Normacol Plus is for disabled quadriplegics but I see normal grown people being prescribed that. or Klacid Syrup prescribed for children as part of a triple therapy with Amoxil and Losec when its only indicated for Pertussis.   
• Doctors writing PBS scripts for their regular patients who intend to send it overseas to their sick relative. (illegal btw) 

Medicare of Australia - my advice to you is audit those doctors in our country if Medicare requires cost-cutting. Do not focus everything on pharmacies and makes constant changes such as price disclosure, price dropping, clinical interventions value reduction, Medscheck caps, audit us ..... coz these will drive us out of business, unemployment rates with increase. Trust me, doctors require auditing as there has been a lot of illegal activity going on. and I'm surprised nothing has been done about it. Pretty unfair if you ask me. Why are we always targeted? Changes in the past few years have affected pharmacies.

Confused woman who doesn't know what one plus one is

I dispensed Voltaren EC 50mg tablets for a customer today. I explained to her its an anti-inflammatory for pain and inflammation; counselled her on how to use it:

Me: You need to take one tablet twice a day so one in the morning and one at night.

She looks at me blankly and frowns with a very confused look on her face.

Her: But the doctor told me I need to take two tablets a day?!?!?!?!?!?

Me looks at her very confused and I say: Errr yeh that's correct. One morning and one at night IS two tablets a day?

Her: Oh.....


Either slow or dumb... actually maybe both.