Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacy students slump

THE Pharmacy Board of Australia (PBA) has revealed a 14% year-on-year decline in registered pharmacy students in 2017/18.

The figure is one of a range of statistics unveiled in the Board's Annual Report for the 12 months to 30 Jun 2018.

As of that date there were 6,487 students studying pharmacy, down from more than 7,500 a year earlier.

The report noted that during 2017/18 a total of 31,108 pharmacists were registered, an increase of 2.55 on 2016/17, with the profession now comprising 4.4% of all registered health practitioners in Australia.

During the year almost one in 50 (1.9%) of registered pharmacists had notifications made about them.

A total of 411 notifications were finalised during the year - 14% of which resulted in acceptance of an undertaking or conditions being imposed on a pharmacist's registration.

Almost 30% of the notifications saw the pharmacist involved receiving a caution or reprimand from the Board.

Just 0.2% of notifications settled resulted in suspension of registration, and the same proportion resulted in a fine being imposed.

More than half (54.7%) of the notifications about pharmacists received by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency resulted in no further action.

A total of 44 mandatory notifications were made - 36 about standards, seven about impairment and one about sexual misconduct, while 163 pharmacists were monitored by AHPRA for health, performance and/or conduct during the year.

Key activities undertaken by the Pharmacy Board of Australia during the period including convening the Pharmacy Prescribing Forum, funding the development of new tools to assist pharmacists to engage with the revised National competency standards framework for pharmacists in Australia 2016, and funding of the Australian Pharmacy Council for the development of an Intern Year Blueprint

See the report at ahpra.gov.au.