PSA wants into the CPA
June 30, 2010
THE Pharmaceutical Society of
Australia has criticised the
involvement of only two parties - the
Government and the Guild, in the
creation of the Fifth Community
Pharmacy Agreement.
The PSA has said that this two
party system limited the CPA5 to
the “specific interests and priorities
of the [Guild’s] pharmacy owner
membership”.
“Such interests and priorities do
not always coincide with those of
the wider pharmacist population,”
said PSA National President,
Warwick Plunkett.
“The [PSA] has no legislated role
in the eventual roll-out of the
agreed services and must therefore
depend on the goodwill and
common sense of the two parties to
utilise the expertise and commitment
within PSA to bring these programs
into the marketplace in a
sustainable form,” Plunkett added.
Although the Agreement does
provide that the PSA “will be an
active participant” in its areas of
professional practice, the PSA has
argued that the documented
wording provides “no clear
indication or direction” as to how
this participation will be enacted.
“Given PSA represents more than
13,000 members across the
spectrum of the pharmacy profession,
nearly all of which work in community
pharmacy, compared with less than
4000 within the Guild membership,
it is time that this anomaly was
changed,” Plunkett said.
The PSA is now calling on all
pharmacists to lobby both the Guild
and the Government to give the
PSA “full carriage of professional
programs in the CPA whilst the
Guild concentrates on the
important ownership, supply and
remuneration issues”.
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