PHARMACY Guild of Australia leaders and their Australian Medical Association counter-parts are being praised for their collaborative efforts to develop a new model of care for rural and regional Australia.
Speaking at the Guild's Annual Parliamentary Dinner in Canberra on Tue, Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt, thanked Guild National President, George Tambassis and AMA President, Dr Tony Bartone, for their willingness to work together to improve the delivery of healthcare services outside Australia's metropolitan areas.
"My belief is we can establish a new partnership within our health sector between our pharmacists and our medical community," the Minister said.
"I want to praise both George and Tony Bartone for their work in getting together with their CEOs.
"That partnership is about a new model for rural and indigenous Australia, where we have pharmacists and GPs and the allied health practitioners all working together as an integrated healthcare system that's a very exciting historic development, which is happening now."
Meanwhile, the AMA has welcomed Government reforms of medical bonding programs, which are set to improve rural health services.
The Health Insurance Amendment (Bonded Medical Programs Reform) Bill 2019, passed Parliament on Wed, delivering an overhaul of the Bonded Medical Places (BMP) and Medical Rural Bonded Scholarship (MRBS) programs which had previously "failed to make meaningful progress towards addressing workforce shortages in rural areas and other underserviced communities," Bartone said.
The new arrangements offer greater flexibility and certainty, along with less red tape, he added.
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