SCOPE of practice, digital health and greater collaboration with external stakeholders look set to feature in 2025, says Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President Fei Sim.
Speaking to Pharmacy Daily about what the year ahead will bring, one of the key developments Sim expects to see is the rapid upscale of scope expansion.
"With that will come the challenges of navigating a lack of national harmonisation - so we will continue to call for harmonisation."
There are also reviews and policy work happening at the government level that will affect pharmacies.
"For example, we have the scope of practice review being released.
"It will be interesting to see what the government does in terms of its implementation."
With the federal election in the first half of next year, Sim says it is important to have bilateral support for the pharmacy profession and its work.
"The work that we do as healthcare professionals doesn't stop and it doesn't change, and that recognition needs to continue, and the work needs to continue."
She also points to the need to close the difference between federal level healthcare activity and state-based activity.
"We have the national health reform agreement that is happening at the moment.
"It's not specific to pharmacy, but we fit in one of the commitments in that the national health reform agreement is bringing the federal, state and territory governments together to see how we can better achieve collaboration and benefit from it."
The Primary Health Care 10-Year Plan and Strengthening Medicare initiatives are ongoing, with pharmacy given a seat at the table.
Sim expects the health system will continue to face more and more pressure with an ageing population and increased healthcare needs.
"And we will see next year how the evolution of pharmacy practice will continue to support this."
The PSA released the Pharmacists in 2030 report this year, its flagship vision for the future of Australian pharmacy practice.
"That will guide not just external people's views around who we are and what we can provide, but it also helps guide us on how we would continue to advocate in the direction that we will go."
Sim expects to see digital health ramped up, driven by real needs on the ground.
"As we continue to provide more clinical services, clinical documentation needs will rise, and with it our need to access healthcare data.
"So I think there will be continuous movement in the digital health space."
She also anticipates seeing more innovative projects, pilots and trials, coming through partnerships with universities, primary health networks and other government and non-government agencies.
"A lot of innovative work comes out of those sort of projects where you trial a particular innovation and create the evidence, and then the evidence can be used by us to continue to advocate for wide-scale implementation," Sim said.
This year has been a significant year for pharmacists and the pharmacy profession as a whole, with a positive lens placed on pharmacists and what they can do.
"Our profession as a whole has greater connection than ever before with the government, with the Department of Health and Aged Care, the Primary Health Networks and other external stakeholders.
She hopes for that to continue in 2025, but would like to see more unity within the profession.
"I think moving into next year, I would like to see our profession being more united.
"We are a small profession, a small but mighty profession.
"The more unity we can have, the more alignment we can have within our profession, the better it is for our profession." KB
See more from our interview with Fei Sim in the Pharmacy Daily Year in Review special report, coming out next week.
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