INCREASING wages rates under the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020 will make pharmacy a more attractive career option for talented students, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President, Dr Fei Sim, believes.
Speaking at the PSA's annual conference in Sydney last week, Sim described the current rate as embarrassing.
"Remuneration has a direct tie to our workforce capacity issues," she said.
"They are intertwined. Imagine if you are a parent, [or] a very aspiring year 10, 11 or 12 [student] and you go to a career fair... the first thing they check is 'what's the take home wage for pharmacists?'
"Are you going to aspire to be a pharmacist if you know the award rate is $29.41 per hour?
"I personally feel embarrassed to go out there and tell people that our award rate is $29.41.
"In real life we do not pay pharmacists that amount anymore, but what we're saying is the industry award rate definitely needs to be raised to match what we're paying people out there at the moment, but also further raising to recognise the skillset, [and] the competence of pharmacists."
Sim said that increasing pharmacist remuneration was high on the PSA's agenda, and has been an issue the organisation has raised in meetings with the Federal Department of Health and Aged Care, and relevant ministers.
"It's not going to happen overnight, but we are very, very committed to driving this agenda," she said.
"We are not an industrial body, so we are limited - in a way our hands are tied when it comes to what we can do with Fair Work.
"But what we are doing is we are using our advocacy efforts and channelling that through the stakeholders that we deal with to advocate for direct payments to pharmacists."
PSA General Manager Policy and Engagement, Chris Campbell, said the organisation was seeking to secure "direct Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) payments for pharmacists for case conferencing" and "for administering medicines".
"[PSA is also] looking for a commitment in the future [Community] Pharmacy Agreements that remuneration for pharmacy services goes directly to the pharmacist who is giving those services," he said.
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