Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (23 October) . . Page.. 4023 ..
I am MRS
CROSS (continuing):sure that we all use pharmacies at various times and value the service that is provided. Sometimes we need the usual headache medication, sinus or hay fever tablets, or even a prescription filled. What many of us do when we enter a pharmacy is ask for advice. Professional advice is given at no charge and with concern for the health and wellbeing of the customer. This advice is invaluable as a first port of call for consumers, particularly for the elderly, and an important contact point for primary health care.
Traditional chemists provide services far beyond those of dispensing prescription drugs and selling obvious chemist products. Frequently customers seek advice from their family chemist about spots on the kids, coughs and colds or whether they should go to a hospital to have a wound stitched.
MR SPEAKER
: Order, members! There are too many conversations going on.MRS CROSS
: At this time of the year it is important to make sure that any antihistamine medication is okay to use with any other medication that is being taken. Your pharmacist can give you that advice and you do not need to consult a higher medical authority. Elderly people who visit the local shopping centre chemist are able to have many questions answered and that is often enough to alleviate the anxiety caused because of ignorance about various conditions.MR SPEAKER
: Order, members!MRS CROSS
: This traditional pharmacy service and advice offered by chemists is an integral part of Canberra's suburbs. Most importantly, this advice is given free of charge. In a supermarket environment, the person left to give advice to customers is often a young and untrained shop assistant. This person is definitely not qualified to let you know whether a particular headache preparation is okay to take with blood pressure medicine. Anyone who has visited the drugstore area in the supermarkets in the United States and Canada will have experienced that situation. The shop assistants are just that: shop assistants, often very young and often just doing a short stint in the pharmacy area of the supermarket.There is also the conflict concerning the pharmacists' efforts to encourage healthy lifestyles and promote the health and wellbeing of the community members. They try to discourage smoking and encourage healthy eating. What do supermarkets do? They make a great deal of money selling the proverbial junk food to everyone and even more money selling tobacco-related products. What sort of conflict does that present? Of course, the large supermarkets are not interested in the health and wellbeing of the community. They are interested in selling products to make money.
Granted, pharmacies are also a business and interested in making money. The difference is that the pharmacy is an important part of primary health care for our community. The pharmacy is, as I have previously said, the first port of call for the community and provides an invaluable service. We need to promote pharmacies as primary health care agents, as a good resource for all citizens and as a method of gaining immediate positive health outcomes for the general community.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .