Cost Of Disposal Should Lie With Dhb's

“The cost of disposing of unused returned medicines should lie with the DHB’s not the pharmacists,” said New Zealand First health spokesperson, Barbara Stewart.

“Unused and returned medicines are piling up in many pharmacies around the country because of the introduction last year of all-at-once dispensing.

“District Health Boards must act now to reach an agreement with pharmacists for medicine disposal before the situation gets out of control.

“It costs $55 to dispose of a medium sized box of medicine and it is unrealistic to expect pharmacists to pay for this.

“Historically pharmacists did pay but they had very few returns. With the introduction of the new all-at-once dispensing that has changed.

“An agreement must be reached to ensure that unused medicines are disposed of properly and the burden of cost is not put onto pharmacies,” said Mrs Stewart.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>