Pharmacy Daily | WA pollies urged to back pharmacy

CANDIDATES running in next year's Western Australian State elections are being urged to support a push for community pharmacy to play a greater role in the delivery of primary care.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia WA Branch President, Andrew Ngeow, called on political parties and independents to commit to the organisation's election platform.

"This platform is essentially providing a plan for the next term of government to better utilise the community pharmacy network within Western Australia's primary healthcare system," he said.

The Guild is calling for the establishment of a "strategic reserve of medicine for the WA community", to empower pharmacists to administer an expanded range of immunisations - including COVID-19 vaccines when they become available, and to maintain the COVID-19 Continuance of Critical Community Pharmacy Services model to ensure vulnerable patients retain access to medicine in emergency or disaster scenarios.

WA politicians are being urged to commit to working with the Guild to develop an implementation plan for the pharmacy-specific recommendations of the Sustainable Health Review and the Review of Community Pharmacy Ownership.

Candidates are also being asked to back a review of the Commercial Tenancy (Retail Shops) Agreement Act 1985, to include a moratorium on rental increases for a transitional phase of at least 12 months from the end of the COVID-19 Emergency Period, and to support a guaranteed 'departure with dignity clause' for businesses that become insolvent as a result of the pandemic.

"The Government should, as a matter of urgency, conduct a review of the Commercial Tenancy (Retail Shops) Agreement Act 1985," Ngeow said.

"The legislation has proven ineffective in providing appropriate levels of protection to tenants, including community pharmacies, and our recent experience has not delivered us any level of confidence that it will be suitable for the needs of these businesses in the post-COVID-19 recovering economy."

The Guild is also seeking financial support for community pharmacy focussed training, with the organisation calling for pharmacy and dispensary assistants to be provided financial incentives by the State Government for the training at Certificate II-IV levels.