The AJP Podcast

By Australian Journal of PharmacyBusiness Medicine Health & Fitness Careers

The AJP Podcast episodes

October 22, 2024Pharmacy done differently
Complete Care Pharmacy in Rosny Park, Tasmania, co-owner Kristina Fox talks about taking a new approach to community pharmacy in our latest podcast
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh discusses the Complete Care Pharmacy model with pharmacy owner, Kristina Fox.
The Rosny Park pharmacy reopened under the Complete Care Pharmacy brand in September 2023 with a unique design (1 min 13) that Fox says is already delivering for patients and the business.
Topics discussed include:
“We want pharmacists to be known as the givers of health advice” (4:51)
Tailor software that helps with pharmacotherapy (7:13)
Pharmacists work on the floor to triage patients (8:13)
Making use of digital baskets (8:59)
Taking health conversations off the store floor with pods and consultation rooms (12:18)
Charging for minor ailment consultations (13:08)
The Complete Care model is delivering, with patient numbers rising and gross profits up (17:58)
Changing staff roles within the pharmacy (22:08)
Pharmacists need to be visible to deliver full scope of practice services (25:44)
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
41 min
October 09, 2024 ‘That person who’s requesting naloxone could be requesting it for a whole range of reasons’
AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh interviews Dr Suzanne Nielsen about opioid safety and naloxone
Professor, pharmacist and current acting director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre Suzanne Nielsen says it’s important to get key information to patients who need it… and tailored to them.
Nielsen talks us through the development of the Opioid Safety Toolkit, which was designed specifically for patients prescribed opioids for pain, and the importance of raising awareness of opioid side-effects and reliance.
“Very few” people who might meet the criteria for opioid use disorder had ever asked for help, or even spoken to a health care provider about their concerns, she says.
“For whatever reason, those good conversations were just not happening,” Nielsen says. “And a lot of that we understand was around things like either stigma or patient fear or just a lack of awareness.”
03.38 – How can pharmacists support these patients?
5.05 – How can patients easily navigate through the toolkit?
06.40 – How have patient attitudes towards naloxone changed since deaths with novel synthetic opioids?
09.13 – What sort of questions might people as about naloxone?
12.13 – How can pharmacists encourage at-risk patients or their families to get naloxone?
14.55 – How can pharmacists be resourced?
18.13 – How to have these conversations with patients
21.29 – What about people taking opioids long-term?
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
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Carlene McMaugh
25 min
September 25, 2024‘A lot of countries can learn from our model’
Australia’s new pharmacy agreements provide model for others to follow, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) president, Paul Sinclair, tells our latest podcast
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh discusses the Eight Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) and the Strategic Agreement on Pharmacist Professional Practice, with the former Pharmacy Guild of Australia vice president, Paul Sinclair.
Having led the Guild’s negotiating team for the 6CPA, Sinclair lauded the 8CPA negotiating team for their efforts in securing the new deal with the government (1 min 28).
Other topics discussed include:
“There was a real opportunity for government to disrupt our industry further in the professional side of it” (2:15)
8CPA provides a platform for further broadening pharmacists’ scope of practice (2:43)
The 8CPA funding model provides great certainty to the industry (3:31)
Overseas models are funded by insurance companies that tend to take a harder line on the value of the pharmacist (4:12)
Consumer choice ensured by the 8CPA allows patients to engage with their local pharmacy and build relationships (5:45)
The 8CPA is a model other countries can learn from (7:46)
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s (PSA’s) Strategic Agreement on Pharmacist Professional Practice is “a very good thing… the fact that the PSA now has its own agreement, it takes a lot of tension out of the way that agreements were previously negotiated” (10:38)
“We’ve got a great platform now” for the expansion of scope of practice (14:14)
“We have to advocate strongly for further progression of scope of practice” (18:06)
German policymakers are considering “a very disturbing policy… which would allow pharmacies to operate without a pharmacist on the premises” (25:28).
Other countries are pushing for pharmacy technicians to play a bigger role to free up pharmacists to deliver professional services (27:50).

You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
31 min
September 13, 2024No downside to 8CPA
“Winners never quit, and quitters never win,” Anthony Tassone tells our latest podcast that the Guild’s 8CPA negotiating team was relentless in its pursuit of a sustainable deal for the sector
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh discusses the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA), 60-day dispensing and the government’s recent vaping reforms with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s chief negotiator Anthony Tassone.
Topics covered include:
The timeframe for the development of the 8CPA (1 min 08)
Push for the restoration of equity in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) (5:00)
A funded pathway towards full scope of practice (6:04)
Data was a key tool in setting the Guild’s agenda and ensuring the negotiating team “didn’t turn up with a knife to a gunfight” (7:26)
Taking lessons from the past (10:02)
Concerns around the potential impacts of 60-day dispensing place huge pressure on pharmacy owners’ mental health (12:36)
The 8CPA has restored confidence and enthusiasm in the community pharmacy sector (13:56)
Uptake of 60-day dispensing is below the Department of Health and Aged Care’s original forecasts (16:30)
Funding secured through the agreement includes a 0% downside buffer for the first time (17:45)
Take the opportunities to provide new services under state and territory scope of practice programs (20:36)
Guild to seek more funded services and greater expansion of scope of practice in 9CPA (23:44)
Government’s vaping reforms “policy on the run” (25:38)
“Calling them therapeutic vapes, it’s really astonishing… it’s quite unprecedented what the government’s done here – I don’t expect it will succeed” (27:50).
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, and pharmacy students who are struggling with mental health and professional issues can access peer-to-peer support through the Pharmacists’ Support Service (PSS) on 1300 244 910 between 8am and 11pm AEDT.
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
30 min
September 03, 2024‘Once you’re pregnant people kind of write you off’
Despite pharmacy’s highly feminised workforce, pregnancy and maternity status remain a significant barrier to working in the profession, British pharmacist Amandeep Doll says
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh talks with Amandeep Doll the head of professional belonging and engagement at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society about the challenges pharmacists face when it comes to starting a family while maintaining a career.
Topics covered include:
Pharmacy needs policies to protect women and men who are starting families, so they are not discriminated against (1 min 13)
A survey conducted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society found that pregnancy and maternity status was recognised as one of the top three barriers to working in pharmacy (2:19)
The lack of flexible working options in pharmacy settings makes working in pharmacy difficult for pregnant women and new parents (4:50)
“Once you’re pregnant people kind of write you off… their attitudes towards pregnancy are ‘if you want to start a family, then therefore you must not care about your career'” (6:17)
Pharmacies need to support women from when they start wanting to have children all the way through to returning to work and reintegrating into teams (7:11)
Providing greater flexibility will help attract more diverse candidates to senior roles (8:50)
Work policies need to be family-friendly, “sometimes dads get forgotten about” (10:50)
Pharmacists need to challenge negative views on parenting (11:46)
Employee pharmacists need to empower themselves by knowing their rights and engaging with their employer (17:54)
Pharmacists need to be realistic about their return to work and not over-commit, while also being reasonable in their “asks” (19:48)
Redundancies during and after pregnancy (22:27)
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
27 min
August 15, 2024The importance of connection
Curtis Ruhnau talks in our 100th podcast about supporting your staff and colleagues, the renewed sense of optimism in community pharmacy and why credentialed pharmacists need adequate remuneration
In this issue of the AJP podcast, Curtis Ruhnau, president of the Pharmacists Support Service (PSS) and community pharmacy owner, talks to podcast host Carlene McMaugh about a host of topics, including:
The importance of maintaining connection and dialogue with staff and colleagues (00:43)
Changes brought on by 60-day dispensing (05:39)
The impact of the 8CPA on pharmacist confidence and security, and how this is reflected in calls to the PSS (08:43)
Does he have confidence post-8CPA (11:02)
What important developments does he see resulting from the 8CPA (12:57)
Nurturing younger pharmacists (17:42)
Working with your community (20:12)
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
30 min
August 07, 2024Resilient profession gets its reward
Australia’s pharmacy sector is set to benefit from the extraordinary certainty over the course of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA), a business advisor tells our latest podcast
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh talks with Paul Hedley the principal partner of Hedley Partners about the 8CPA and its impact on the pharmacy market.
Topics covered include:
Pharmacy’s “incredible ability to pivot” in response to challenges and changes (2 minutes 30)
8CPA provides a direction of pharmacies to adopt a service focused business model (3:29)
Pharmacy owners need to control the controllables knowing there’s a “certain inevitability about 60-day dispensing” and resulting revenue loss (5:10)
The 8CPA will not only protect pharmacies’ revenue, but also enhance the value of businesses (9:08)
The agreement is a recognition of the importance of of pharmacists logistically to the government and a form of reward for the profession’s efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic (13:40)
Following the uncertainty caused by 60-day dispensing buyers are starting to actively look at pharmacies following the signing of the 8CPA (14:56)
Turf war between GPs and pharmacists may be dissipating due to GP workforce crisis, and the community will be the winner (19:13)
Conditions right for a high degree of activity in the pharmacy sales market (22:00)
Big players’ appetite for acquisitions is likely to increase (23:24)
Characteristics of successful (and not so successful) pharmacy owners (27:37)
Tips for pharmacists looking to buy their first store (32:12)
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
43 min
July 17, 2024‘Don’t expect instant returns’
Pharmacy ownership requires a lot of sacrifice, and aspiring owners need to be “hands-on in all aspects” of the business, Gordon Ngan tells our podcast
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh talks with Victorian community pharmacist, Gordon Ngan, about pharmacy ownership.
The topics covered include:
Ngan’s journey to ownership ( 2 min 44)
The “steep learning curve” new owners face (3:36)
The owner is the most important when it comes to building goodwill for the business (5:08)
Financing a pharmacy purchase (6:20)
Price reductions on prescription medicines have cut margins in community pharmacy compared to 20-plus years ago (7:40)
Unexpected hurdles (8:14)
Aspiring owners need to be willing to make sacrifices to build a successful business (9:11)
Dealing with the impacts of 60-day dispensing (10:22)
Location, pharmacy size and manpower are key considerations when it comes to implementing innovations (15:00)
Having one pharmacist on duty will hinder growth opportunities (16:53)
Owners should be open-minded when it comes to giving employee pharmacists opportunities to lead (20:22)
The three elements to finding the right pharmacy – location, financial support and manpower (21:43)
The qualities of a good business partner (22:34)
Knowing when to sell (26:49)
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
30 min
June 27, 2024 A portfolio career
Why has it been tricky getting into general practice to date? How does a pharmacist juggling many balls know which ones can and cannot be dropped? And what does the 8CPA mean for rural health?
Consultant pharmacist of the year Brooke Shelly talks with AJP Podcast Carlene McMaugh about her “portfolio career” – what it’s like wearing many hats, from working in a GP surgery, to performing HMRs and RMMRs, and moving into the research arena.
She says that the new agreements offer a lot of hope for innovation in rural health, with the new PSA strategic agreement becoming a new home for professional pharmacist services.
“For so long it has been a challenge to have remuneration structures within a Community Pharmacy Agreement that directly affect pharmacists that don’t work within or have a connection to community, it has actually never made sense.
“It’s also really impacted with conversation with government,” she says.
The new agreements will also help pharmacists have their voices heard by other health professionals, she says – and it’s “beyond exciting”.
The pair also talk about what it’s like living in a small town, building rapport with patients – “I see them at the footy and I see them at the supermarket” – as well as other health colleagues, and how taking on many roles can result in a varied and professionally satisfying career.
“Soft skills are really essential in being able to be adaptable, in terms of how to have tricky conversations, how to maintain rapport with another health professional whilst disagreeing, how to build relationships quickly all, that sort of thing will allow you to be able to step into different roles with relative ease,” she says, offering advice for pharmacists keen to take on a portfolio career.
This means putting yourself into situations and conversations which may not come naturally, she says.
“It’s also about saying yes to any opportunity that comes your way, or better yet, creating those opportunities yourself.”
“It is a really exciting time to be a pharmacist and if you have capacity to contribute to the change and the transformation that needs to happen in our profession, then put your hand up and be part of it.”
4.32 – What is a portfolio pharmacist – how did these opportunities come about and how do you balance them all?
8.54 – On winning the Consultant of the Year Award and “standing on the shoulders of giants”
10.40 – Advice on a portfolio career
15.30 – Inequities in rural health and how the new pharmacy agreements could make a change
22.45 – What would you like to see from the strategic agreements?
24.53 – How do pharmacists get on board with the new areas of practice?
28.35 – On pharmacist prescribing – and is there really a turf war between professions?
31.02 – Better utilisation of telehealth for credentialled pharmacists
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
36 min
June 20, 2024‘This is a very successful outcome’
The Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement will provide the profession with opportunities to play a greater role in the provision of healthcare, Bruce Annabel says
AJP Podcast presenter Carlene McMaugh talks with pharmacy business consultant and AJP columnist, Bruce Annabel, about the 8CPA, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s Strategic Agreement on Pharmacist Professional Practice, and the opportunities it will provide the sector.
Among the topics covered are:
8CPA “a very good outcome for the industry” (3 min 09)
$2.111 billion Additional Community Supply Support Payment (ACSS) provides “recognition of the need to provide financial compensation for the impact of 60-day dispensing (4:25)
Pharmacy is not losing any services under 8CPA (6:00)
There is $1.4 billion of services that will be funded outside of the 8CPA and PSA agreement (7:01)
Uptake of 60-day dispensing has been modest to date, but if it reaches close to 60% the ACSS may not be enough to cover losses (11:26)
The government has agreed to pay ACSS fees for double dispensed scripts dispensed since 1 April 2024 (12:24)
Increased funding for professional services under the 8CPA “flags room for growth” (17:00)
8CPA provides a platform for a shift to a new model of community pharmacy (22:13)
Pharmacy has a unique opportunity for pharmacists to come out of their supply role to become health professionals operating in the broader health system (28:30)
Pharmacy can “take up slack” in primary care (29:55)
No need for negativity around 8CPA (30:38).
You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.
ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Carlene McMaugh
35 min

About The AJP Podcast

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The podcast by pharmacists, for pharmacists, brought to you by the AJP. Each episode, join a diverse panel of pharmacists from all settings and experience levels discussing topics that affect…