AUSTRALIA'S Pharmacy Industry Award 2020 "is not fit for purpose" and needs to be reviewed before a workforce crisis emerges, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, believes.
Speaking during a NAB Health Insights webinar yesterday, the Guild President said the profession had "a big problem at the moment" in terms of attracting and retaining talent.
Twomey said COVID-19 border restrictions were exacerbating the issue with "skilled overseas migration" a "big source" of pharmacists and pharmacy assistants, which had completely dried up since early last year.
"I met with the two employee unions last week to talk about this very specific issue," he said.
"I don't think the Pharmacy Industry Award, which is now in it's 11th year - because of course it was the Pharmacy Industry Award 2010 before that - is fit for purpose for attracting and retaining talent.
"I want to have a look at it.
"I don't want to be the President of an industrial union that responds to the questions of work value that are put before me and waits for there not to be pressures, but a workforce crisis.
"I want to have a conversation about how I can have a more modern and contemporary industrial relations framework that enables us to attract and retain talent."
Twomey added that a revised Award was only part of the solution for making pharmacy an attractive career.
"Having full scope of practice, which enables a more clinically and professionally rewarding career is the other half of that story," he said.
"We're deadset 35th out of 35 countries in the OECD in terms of what a pharmacist can do, the services we can provide.
"This is something we have to fix, and I know we can do it, because when we talk about the public, and we talk about the things we can do to improve healthcare, the things we can provide consumers, the benefits that it will bring to central agencies at State and Territory levels and at Commonwealth levels, the savings that it will bring to our health system, it will happen."
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