The New Zealand Formulary

If you are a health professional in NZ and are still using MIMS as your drug reference then you should probably be sodomised. Ok, a bit over the top but all jokes aside, NZ finally has its own version of BNF.

Not only does it have clinical information, it also provides PHARMAC and Medsafe info as well. For all the relevant links, see the New Zealand Formulary tab near the top of this page.

When you are using it on your computer (ie PDF version), don't be a chump and scroll through the pages when you are only trying to find information about one particular drug. Press Ctrl + F and type in the drug name and cycle through the relevant bits quickly. Unfortunately I don't think e-readers have that option.

LTC Assessment Tools - Education Evenings

For all the New Zealand Pharmacists that wants to know more about the LTC assessment tool and its application in a community pharmacy, you'll want to attend these education evenings. There's one in Lower Hutt tomorrow, make sure you don't miss out.

You'll find that I have added a tab above which provide links to extra LTC resources as well as PSA information. It pays to know the details of the PSA (dispensing ratios etc.) even if you are not a pharmacy owner (the new government paying method will indirectly influence an employee's pay/benefits. To think otherwise would be naive.)

Regardless of your views on the new Pharmacy Services Agreement, it pays to jump in the deep end and start swimming. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get across to the other side.

Indian Water laced with Quinine

Being not much of a drinker, I found this little gem particularly amusing whilst shopping in Big Carrot Town.

Want some fresh water from the Manawatu River? Not strong enough for you? How about some dysentery-causing indian tonic water (fresh from the Ganges) with a touch of Quinine.

At least you know you will be cramp-free whilst enjoying a bout of diarrhoea.

Top 5 Traits of a Beneficiary

Following on from the similar theme of identifying some typical patient characteristics, I will devote the whole post to people who are on "couch-sitting grants". No, I am not talking about people who just happened to be made redundant or the ones that came down with a debilitating illness in need of financial assistance. I am talking about the ones that seems to be getting the dole in perpetuity.

• They are always in a hurry. They come into the pharmacy sometimes up to 2 to 3 times a day, they got no job, yet they always need to be somewhere like the road runner. Solution? They just have to wait in line like everybody else.

• Sense of entitlement. "I am a human being, I deserve to be looked after by the government (whilst making no effort to look after myself), I deserve good (and free!) things and if I can't afford my cable tv then I will go on a current affair show and make a soundbite about how my eight children are not getting looked after"

• Asking to pay later. "Cool, I'll pick up 3 months worth of bread* and come back and pay the $3 tomorrow." What's that? You don't do that at the supermarkets? Alrighty then, I'll have your drugs on my shelf until you can pay for them. It's nostalgic to think that it wasn't so long a go that I would readily let them "pay later" because I know how important the medicines are... until I got sandbagged enough times for the reality to hit me like a moving train.

• They complain. Although not an exclusive trait, the complaints they come up with is baffling at the best of times. "Hi, can you please complain to PHARMAC that the Allopurinol tablets dissolve too fast in my mouth hence too bitter and even though it's quarter the size of a 10c coin, I am unable to toughen up as an adult and just take it so I can prevent the searing, unbearable pain in my toes."

• Finally but not least, dirty biohazardous prescriptions. Even though it might've just been written today, it looks like they have gone home, used it to clean their pet hippo's butt after performing a satanic blood sacrifice over it. Makes for a lovely mental image doesn't it?

A disclaimer before I finish: I do appreciate that a pool of unemployed labour is inevitable in any variations of capitalism. So no, this is not beneficiary bashing and me telling people to "just get a job"; this is a mere observation of what I have encountered (and still encountering) on a daily basis.

*Most medicines in NZ are fully funded at $3 charge per 3 months lot, hence the analogy here.

A Young Girl's Dream

A young girl "dreams of going to Tokyo to sample the food."

Nothing wrong with that right? Not really, considering the girl we are talking about is Britain's fattest teenager.

"How has it come to this?" was the question she asked herself when the local council built a special ramp just to rescue her out of her house in a 100,000 pound operation.

Hate to be the Captain Obvious here but nobody ever just *suddenly* got fat. Devouring crisps, chocolates and 2L of coke daily is not a 24 months cellphone contract, you have heaps of time to back out.

Oh, and she likes reading Fifty Shades of Grey.

This picture correctly summarises my feeling on this issue, without reservation