Pharmacy Daily | Closing the gap efforts are hampered

ON CLOSING The Gap Day 2023 yesterday, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) called for real action to reduce longstanding inequity in medicines access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.

SHPA President Tom Simpson says the Commonwealth needs to urgently enable public hospitals to supply medicines under the Closing The Gap PBS Co-Payment Measure.

"The scope of the Closing The Gap PBS Co-Payment Measure should extend to cancer medicines and highly-specialised drugs listed on Section 100 programs on the PBS, which are currently excluded.

"Unlike community pharmacies, public hospital pharmacies are currently unable to supply PBS medicines to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients under the Closing The Gap PBS Co-Payment Measure hampering efforts to close the gap in healthcare outcomes.

"We strongly support achieving Indigenous health equity by 2030 to be a year-round focus, including through professional development planning and initiatives such as Indigenous Allied Health Australia's Cultural Responsiveness Training, which is free until 03 Apr for all SHPA members," Simpson said.

A key recommendation arising from PSA's Medicine Safety: Rural and Remote Care report was to embed pharmacists within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, however, while ad-hoc funding provides some support for pharmacists to provide services, there is a lack of discrete funding to support the integration of pharmacists within the primary care team of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services.

Despite this, 700 pharmacists have enrolled to complete a PSA course on providing culturally sensitive care to First Nations people indicating a strong desire across the profession to better meet needs, PSA concluded.