John Bell health column
A great regular health promotion opportunity for your pharmacy
Self Care Principal Adviser and spokesperson, John Bell writes an informative health editorial for Self Care program members to use in local newspapers or for pharmacy newsletters. The columns are designed to be used to promote your pharmacy as a centre for health information and advice.
Using the column for pharmacy promotion
The John Bell Column is designed to be used by as a regular promotion and marketing tool by Self Care member pharmacies. The Column provides health information on a topical issue in an informative and engaging way, which demonstrates the pharmacy’s commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of their local community.
Who is John Bell?
JOHN ALFRED BELL AM BPharm FPS FRPharmS FACPP MSHP
John Bell is Principal Advisor to the Self Care program – the consumer health information and pharmacist and pharmacy assistant training program managed by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
John was National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) from 1987-1988 and President of the Australian College of Pharmacy Practice from 1996-1998.
John is now a Vice President of the Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP), the organisation headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, representing pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists worldwide. He is also Vice-President of the Pharmacy Practice Foundation of the University of Sydney.
From 1999-2003 John was President and from 2003-2007 Secretary of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), the body which represents 43 national professional pharmacy organisations throughout the Commonwealth of Nations. During these terms of office John was a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Advisory Committee on Health which meets each year in Geneva prior to the Commonwealth Health Ministers’ Meeting and the World Health Assembly.
John has represented Pharmacy on a number of Australian Government Committees. He was a member of the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council’s “Health Care Committee” from 1985 to 1993 and deputy chairman from 1991 to 1993. He was a member of the National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee from 1995 to 1999 and has served continuously on the Poisons Advisory Committee of New South Wales since 1974. John was a member of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council from 1998 to 2002.
John is a board member of Medic Alert and Diabetes Australia (NSW Branch). He is also on the Education Committee of Asthma NSW and honorary pharmacist to the Coeliac Society.
He has been awarded Fellowships of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and the Australian College of Pharmacy Practice.
In 1990 He was awarded the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Association’s award for services to community pharmacy. John was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1993. In 2004 John received FIP’s highest award – the Andre Bedat Award for services to international pharmacy practice.
John co-authored the Pharmaceutical Society’s Dispensary Technicians Training Course and is one of the Pharmaceutical Society’s approved trainers in the Standards of Practice for the provision of Pharmacist Only (S3) and Pharmacy (S2) medicines.
In recent years, on behalf of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association, he has been a member of delegations to India, Bangladesh, Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Zimbabwe and Zambia to consider and make recommendations on matters relating to pharmacy practice and public health. John has also acted as consultant to the Tiwi Health Board regarding pharmacy practice in remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. Since 2000 John has been Chairman of the CPA/FIP/WHO Malaria Task Group which has implemented consumer awareness programmes in developing Commonwealth countries.
For more than 20 years John has been presenting a weekly, state-wide talk-back radio program “The Friendly Pharmacist” and has been writing a weekly health column distributed to over 400 newspapers and magazines throughout Australia.
Since 1969 John has been the proprietor/manager of a community pharmacy in Sydney which provides specialist services to nursing homes, hostels and private hospitals.