Pharmacy Daily | Unleash pharmacy now

ALLOWING pharmacists to practice to their full scope is now an economic and healthcare imperative, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia believes.

With the 2021 Intergenerational Report (IGR) - released yesterday - presenting a "sobering long-term economic and fiscal outlook for Australia" over the next 40 years, Guild National President, Trent Twomey, called on Federal, State and Territory Governments to "unleash the skills of the most trusted health professionals - community pharmacists" to boost productivity within the health system.

"This is both in the immediate term to administer COVID-19 vaccines but also in the medium to longer-term through regulatory reform to allow community pharmacists to practise to their full scope," he said.

"Productivity of the health sector should be optimised by ensuring all health care professionals work to full scope of practice.

"Community pharmacists are not only a highly trained profession but are the most easily accessible, located in all regions of Australia and often operating for extended hours including evenings, weekends and public holidays.

"Utilised to its full scope of practice, community pharmacy can boost the productivity of the health sector and provide quality primary healthcare in a cost-effective way.

"Scope of practice entails many functions that pharmacists have training to do, and pharmacists can be used more effectively to support people with self-management of their health conditions, medication administration and review, management and continuation of treatments for long-term health conditions as well as ordering and interpreting laboratory tests.

"Policy and regulatory reform at all level of government to enable scope of practice will ensure savings to the health system materialise."

Twomey noted that utilising the community pharmacy network to its full potential would be key to managing the challenges posed by Australia's ageing population.