CCPG NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2013
BOARD CHANGES
At the first Board meeting following the AGM Carolyn Oakley-Brown stepped down as Chair of
CCPG. Carolyn has been Chair since the formation of CCPG in 2009 and has led the organisation
with commitment and passion. This has often been to the detriment of her personal and business
life. Much of the success we currently enjoy as a profession in Canterbury is due to her inspired
leadership. Carolyn was presented with a pendant in the shape of the rose window from the
Christchurch Cathedral as a token of the appreciation of her work. Simon Church was elected as
Chair and Daryl Sayer Deputy Chair. Carolyn says one of the reasons she was ready to step down
was the strong pool of leadership talent that has developed within the organisation.
Mary King has resigned from the Board for personal reasons. Mary has made a significant
contribution to the Board of CCPG over the past few years. Her strategic thinking and ability to see
the big picture have been of huge value. She has given her time freely and her presence at the
Board table will be missed.
MMS CHANGES
Following negotiations with the CDHB I am pleased to announce some changes to the way MMS
will operate in Canterbury. The negotiations have centred on recognition of the time involved in an
initial consultation and a desire to improve uptake of MMS from community pharmacy. We have
also tried to be consistent with the expected changes to the MUR service specification following
the current round of consultation on the Service Framework by PSNZ.
From 1 February 2014 the payment for an initial MMS will increase from $100 to $140. For patients
registered for LTC there will be no follow up payment. It is expected that follow ups will become
part of the Medicines Management Plan for those patients. For patients not registered for LTC
there will be payment of $25 for one follow up to be completed within three months of the initial
consultation. The higher payment should now make it feasible for pharmacists who do not have an
MUR accredited pharmacist to contract someone in. If you are one of the 40 pharmacies without
an accredited pharmacist and would like to do this please contact Lisa Giles for more information.
Consequently the mobile pharmacist team has been reduced from 4.2 full time equivalent
pharmacists to 2. Currently cover is being provided by Louise Kennedy, Gareth Frew and Kathryn
Snook. Louise has recently accepted a position with the Pegasus Education team and will leave us
early in the New Year. Louise has been involved from the early days of MMS and will be missed.
She leaves with our best wishes. In October we farewelled Shirin Namjou and Tracey Borrie from
the Mobile Pharmacist Team, both of whom made significant contributions during their year with
us.
Following the departure of Claire Pope from the MMS Admin role we are pleased to welcome
Donna Ashby to the team. Donna has a background in Admin and Management work at Family
Planning. Outside work she applies here management skills to her two sons and a rugby team.
The new MMS database that has been developed on the CCMS platform received its first viewing
by the mobile pharmacists and Executive team last week. It appears to be much more user friendly
than the old database. Fewer key strokes to enter data, a more intuitive feel and better report
writing are the key features. Because CCMS is cloud based Outcome Reports from community
pharmacy will go directly into the database. There is still some fine tuning to do before full user
testing takes place. We expect to be ready to start rolling out the new database in February next
year.
eSCRV ADVISORY GROUP
Funding has been secured from the CDHB to set up a Pharmacy Advisory Group for eSCRV. A
parallel group for GPs has been running for some time. Members of the group are Peter Fear
(Chair) Simon Church, Graeme Smith and Ginny Brailsford. Ginny will also take on the role of
Privacy Officer for pharmacy. The Group are certainly aware of the current frustrations around
eSCRV, especially the lack of GP data visible to pharmacy, the tight time frames around access
and the limited ability of technicians to access useful data. Work is already under way on the first
two. The negotiations around technician access are more fraught. Until Technicians have a
registering body and a formal disciplinary procedure this will be difficult to progress.
FIELD EDUCATOR
Many full financial members of CCPG will already have received a visit from Robyn Harris who
started work last month two days per week as Field Educator for CCPG. Feedback on the first
round of visits has been excellent. Robyn has developed a printed manual on LTC and has
information to help you get the most from our contract for MMS and Quit Card. An important part of
her role is taking on board your comments and feeding them back to the Board and Management.
Please do pass on your comments and suggestions to Robyn.
WORKFORCE
One of the problems in Canterbury has been the recruitment and retention of skilled workers, in
particular pharmacists. CERA has recognised that this is a problem post-earthquake for the entire
health spectrum and has provided some funding for workforce development. CCPG have been
involved in meeting with other health professionals to devise a strategy for recruitment and
retention. However we have taken some small steps to make Canterbury look more attractive to
pharmacists. CCPG has provided a ten week Summer Studentship. Sarah Mooney, who is
between her third and fourth year of study at Otago University, is with us for ten weeks running a
project to evaluate MMS. Dr Rhiannon Braund is overseeing the academic side of her work. In
addition Ginny Brailsford has developed an extended placement scheme for a number of students
taking in both community and hospital pharmacy. Funding for this has been provided by the CDHB.
The message we want to give undergraduates is that Canterbury is an exciting place to work.
THANK YOU
On a personal note I would like to thank those of you who voted for me in the recent PSNZ
Executive Board elections. I will do my best to represent you. I attended my first meeting in
Wellington last week. With three new members it is fair to say there was a noticeable vitality
around the table that bodes well for the next four years.
Graeme Smith
General Manager