Health professionals as vendors: the commercial erosion of evidence and ethics

Abstract

With the discussion paper from the ongoing Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation still open for public input, there is an opportunity to reflect on how the services currently delivered by community-based pharmacies in Australia can be improved. Some of the questions up for discussion concern the ways in which pharmacists and patients navigate pharmacists’ dual roles as retailers and dispensers. In the post below, bioethicists Wendy Lipworth, Christopher Mayes and Ian Kerridge discuss what is at stake when therapeutic and commercial boundaries are blurred, and deliver a warning to other health professionals who might consider the addition of merchandising to their professional portfolios.