DATA from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency's (AHPRA's) annual report shows the number of registered pharmacists in Australia is continuing to grow.
The report revealed that 35,262 pharmacists were registered with the Pharmacy Board of Australia at the end of the 2020/21 reporting period - up 2.2% compared with 2019/20 - accounting for 4.3% of all registered health practitioners across the country.
More than a third of registered pharmacists (36.6%) are aged between 25 and 34 years, while 6.3% were aged 65 years or older.
Despite the increased number of pharmacists registered with the Board, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has reported workforce shortages, and welcomed the Federal Government's decision to include pharmacy roles on the Skills Priority List for immigration (PD 23 Nov).
The report revealed that 405 notifications were lodged with AHPRA, 463 were referred to the Health Professional Councils Authority and 57 were made to the Office of the Health Ombudsman, with patients, a relative or member of the public the most common source of notifications (54.3%), while other practitioners accounted for 14.1%.
Almost three out of five complaints that were made against pharmacists related to medications, while 7.4% were associated with their communication, and 5.2% were regarding pharmacists' behaviour.
AHPRA recorded 16 criminal offence complaints about pharmacists, 11 were about title protection, two practice protection and three were about advertising breaches.
Of the 476 notifcations relating to pharmacists that were closed in 2020/21, more than 70% required no further action, while 12.8% resulted in a pharmacist receiving a caution or reprimand.
Conditions were imposed on registration or an undertaking was accepted in 6.5% of cases, with 9.2% being referred to another body, or retained by a health complaints entity.
Of the cases that were referred to an adjudication body, 11 were decided by a tribunal, while one was decided by a panel.
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