PHARMACY Guild executive director David Quilty has come out with all guns blazing in his fortnightly Forefront editorial this week, saying the direction laid down by the King Review of Pharmacy (see page 3 of today's Pharmacy Daily) is "bad for patients, bad for the pharmacist profession, bad for the broader community pharmacy workforce, bad for the medicines sector, and bad for Australia's 5,600 community pharmacies".
Quilty said the Review's "prescription for the future" had all the hallmarks of a calculated attempt to dismantle a community pharmacy model that worked well and enjoyed the overwhelming support of the Australian public.
"It also ignores or misunderstands global health care trends...at a time when health experts worldwide are arguing for a more integrated and patient-centred approach to health care, it would narrow the role of community pharmacies and commoditise the safe and professional dispensing of medicines," Quilty fumed.
He said that in spite of its many flaws, the King Review "is a strong reminder to everyone in pharmacy that we must plan for the future.
"We cannot afford to blithely sit back and hope the future will look after itself or that we can outsource it to some third party," Quilty said.
The Guild executive director said with the next community pharmacy agreement negotiation looming, "the need to plan for and secure the future of community pharmacy to 2025 and beyond is upon us".
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