Pharmacy Daily | Board boosts intern capacity

PHARMACY students hoping to gain internship have been given a helping hand, after an agreement between The Pharmacy Board of Australia, and the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) on a set of initiatives which will support the efficient registration of pharmacy interns. “The Board and AHPRA recognise this is an anxious time for pharmacy interns as they work to secure a role in a competitive employment market,” said Pharmacy Board of Australia Chair, Stephen Marty. Commencing immediately, the initiatives include a boost in AHPRA’s enquiry response capacity, particularly in relation its website. “There is pressure on our telephone enquiry capacity but we are committed to responding to web enquiries within 48 hours,” said AHPRA ceo Martin Fletcher. A further initiative will see APRA realign some of its intern application forms, to make the information clearer and more accessible. To further expedite the process, the Pharmacy Board is also urging intern hopefuls to use the checklist in section I of the general registration application form (AGEN07) to make sure that all the required information is accurate and complete. “They should also make sure they meet the Board’s proof of identity and certifying documents requirements,” he said. “A significant proportion of applications are incomplete and this is the single most common reason for processing delays,” he added. According to Marty, at present intern applications are taking between two to three weeks to process, however complete applications “are processed more swiftly. “This is AHPRA’s peak registration season with 140,000 registration renewals and 30,000 graduation registration applications now being processed,” Fletcher said. Interns seeking information about their application, are also being encouraged to use AHPRA’s online enquiry form as “the most efficient source of information”. MEANWHILE Marty also took the opportunity to remind pharmacists that, as per the recently implemented national registration and accreditation scheme, all pharmacists must meet the new registration standards before they can be registered to practice. “These standards include criminal history checks which are conducted by an external agency – so there are some things about registration since July 2010 that are different from the requirements of previous state and territory pharmacy boards and processing applications necessarily takes more time,” he said.

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