“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of wolf is the pack” - Rudyard Kipling

Sitting quietly in a corner amongst a room full of pharmacists, how often do we hear “Pharmacy has been thrown to the wolves” or something to that effect – doctors and even nurses are allowed to dispense medicine; pharmacy ownership has been opened up to non-pharmacists; then a single exit price and pricing regulations for medicine is published and enforced, making it impossible for private pharmacies to survive; and now Universal Access to Healthcare, to be attained through National Health Insurance, is legislated to come into effect and is perceived to largely exclude pharmacy, especially the small independent retail pharmacy. Depending on the generation or general involvement of the group, this is usually followed by “How could the Pharmacy Council/Pharmaceutical Society allow it?”