POLICY development: Shadow Health Minister, Mark Butler, has welcomed the constructive engagement of community pharmacists in development of national health policy. In a webinar hosted by Pharmacy Guild National President, Trent Twomey, Mr Butler warned of the need for a new focus on preparedness of our primary healthcare system to deal with a rise in COVID-19 case numbers. Mr Butler said policy settings needed to encourage professional healthcare workers to be able to operate at their highest possible scope of practice.
Affordability of medicines was also a key issue and Mr Butler anticipated further discussions with community pharmacists about the current level of co-payment, to "crunch the numbers". Mr Twomey welcomed this understanding of the pressures pharmacists are facing. He also briefed community pharmacists on rapid progress in rolling out Moderna COVID-19 vaccinations through pharmacies, revealing the Find a Pharmacy website is taking around 1.3 million hits every week.
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