Pharmacy Workforce
August 10, 2010
How many pharmacists does
Australia have? How many are we
training? And how many do we
need in the coming decade and
beyond?
These will be among the
questions considered in Canberra
today at a major meeting of
pharmacy education and industry
stakeholders convened by the
Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
The Pharmacy Workforce
Symposium will take as its starting
point the recent findings of the
Pharmacy Workforce Planning
Research Project funded under the
Fourth Community Pharmacy
Agreement.
There has been much industry
discussion about the intake of
pharmacy student numbers at
universities and the ability of those
students to find jobs when they
complete their studies. It is
extremely important to the Guild
and all in the industry that policy
makers have the best information
available to make the right
decisions about the pharmacy
workforce into the future.
The symposium has brought
together around 50 representatives
from government, university
pharmacy schools, pharmacy
students, and peak industry bodies.
Among today’s speakers are Guild
National President Kos Sclavos; the
principal pharmacy adviser to the
Department of Health and Ageing,
Kim Bessell; the head of the school
of pharmacy from the University of
Queensland, Professor Nick Shaw;
the Chief Executive Officer of the
Australian Pharmacy Council, Lyn
LeBlanc; and Guild National
Councillor Toni Riley.
The leader of the Pharmacy
Workforce Planning Research
Project, Lee Ridoutt of Human
Capital Alliance, is also making a
presentation, which includes an
update on the findings of the
model developed by the project.
All attendees at the symposium
have an opportunity to take part in
an open forum discussion about
these issues.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 10 Aug 10To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 10 Aug 10
