putridfairytale

this system is so uniquely cruel. I'm glad things eventually worked out.

you know, it's wrong to use the term healthcare system in the US. this thing we have is incompatible with health indeed. I hope you're doing ok.

thanks, life is busy but sometimes I think about getting into creative writing again. if it ever goes down I'll share. Tales from Not a True Pharmacy, where they definitely don't handle large volumes of pharmaceuticals with zero oversight

you do you

more serious note though, the extent to which people unironically say this about pharmacy is a key example of how for-profit healthcare and capitalism in general has corrupted the profession IMO. medicine, just like all health care should be free for all and healthcare workers should treat people with dignity and respect and should themselves be able to work their profession with dignity... if it looks like the pharmacist is a useless gatekeeper just counting pills all day that's because that's the extent to which the profession has been degraded. there's still important work being done behind the scenes but the amount of corporate BS far outweighs it. trust me most of them hate it too, even if they lack the awareness to see where the problem truly is. there are some scumbags but most of them know they should be making sure that people get the medicine they need safely, and not answering to CVS or Walgreens' bottom lines.

do you want the shit in the plastic bottle not to kill you?

This was a pretty fun read. I'm a pharmacist by trade, and I know people who work in federal facilities. Usually state laws are mere suggestions, but since the workers all have state-issued licenses they presumably want to keep, things stay pretty reasonable. Federal laws are also usually considered mandatory. Seems like nobody gave one iota of a shit here though, lmao. Guess military pharmacies are run different.

Former White House Medical Unit medical providers told investigators that ineligible White House staff members received controlled substance prescriptions and free specialty care, including surgery, at military facilities. Even though the office was only supposed to cover care for 60 enrolled patients, the office instituted its own policy that effectively let any of the 6,000 people working in or around the White House seek health care services. Those were all inappropriately billed to the Defense Department.

Lol this part slaps. Who gives a shit if someone got free care. Critical support for only letting ghouls and ghoul-adjacents in though.

Military Health System officials were unable to identify which organization was responsible for overseeing the office, though it is governed by the rules of the Navy, according to the medical unit. But the Navy told investigators that it was not in charge; the Defense Health Agency, which coordinates care on behalf of the different branches of the military, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center were. Walter Reed told investigators that it supplies the White House’s pharmacy, but that Walter Reed was not in charge of it. The Defense Health Agency admitted to investigators that the White House Medical Unit actually has “no clear line of oversight.”

holy fuck I bet working here was a blast. imagine the stories! jesus christ part of me wants to write a little series of short stories in this setting.

White House Medical Unit officials, defending the practices to the OIG, emphasized that the unit “does not operate a true pharmacy,” telling investigators that “the unit does not handle a large enough volume of pharmaceuticals to qualify as a pharmacy or to require a full time pharmacist.”

Lol, up to 6,000 eligible patients and no full time pharmacist? I understand military pharm techs are allowed to do a lot of work that requires a pharmacist in the civilian world, but come on what the fuck? I wonder how much that 6,000 number was inflated. A good tech can outperform an average pharmacist at filling scripts any day in my experience but god damn, at some point somebody trained to make clinical decisions needs to be involved right?

TY for the link, this was super entertaining in the darkest way!

#blessedcubeson

i wish that i could fear and quake like a shark does

i'd go to the city

and i'd whine, cry, and piss, and shake

at the made up horrors

of course, i believe all the lies blue checks make

former corporate retail pharmacist here. that posting was likely for a technician role. at least I hope so. corporate retail pharmacy is a fucking dumpster fire right now but I don't think it's reached quite that level yet.

replied to the wrong comment! this was meant for the one above.

b-b-b-b-but without a profit motive there can be no innovation!

I don't, lol

maybe not drug discovery but my fever dream showed me a world where there are thousands of comrade chemists and pharmacists making and freely distributing already-known pharmaceuticals to people who need them, free of charge

drug discovery can and should continue to be done via public funding after the pharmaceutical companies are nationalized. this was also a scene from my dream.

open source pharmapunk scene should be a thing. hell it could be a thing already for all I know