Parliamentary Committee report handed down.
The Queensland Parliamentary Committee inquiring into the establishment of a Pharmacy Council and transfer of pharmacy ownership in the state has delivered its much-anticipated report.
The Committee has recommended a range of changes to pharmacy practice in the state, but found there was “no public interest case” for establishing a separate statutory authority, such as a Pharmacy Council, to ensure compliance with pharmacy ownership provisions and pharmacy premises regulation.
Key recommendations included lowering the minimum patient age for pharmacist-administered vaccinations to 16 years, as well as the development of options to provide “low-risk emergency and repeat prescriptions” through pharmacies, subject to a risk-minimisation framework.
The Committee urged the development of nationally consistent education and training requirements for pharmacists administering vaccinations, and also suggested extending the scope of practice of community pharmacist assistants in relation to the handling of dangerous drugs.
A proposed new Queensland Advisory Council would advise the Department of Health on its administration of the Pharmacy Business Ownership Act 2001. Such a body would be funded on a cost-recovery basis by the pharmacy sector.
The committee also recommended the retention of the existing pharmacy ownership legislation in Queensland, along with a risk-based strategy for testing that existing commercial arrangements for pharmacy ownership comply with the requirements, limited to transfers transacted since 03 May 2016.
The inquiry’s findings will now be considered by the Queensland Government, with a repsonse expected in the coming months.
More details in tomorrow’s issue of Pharmacy Daily.
