THE complex role community pharmacy plays in regional and remote parts of Australia is not fully appreciated in the National Rural Health Commissioner's (NRHC) consultation paper on allied health services in the bush, the Rural Pharmacy Network Australia (RPNA) believes.
In its submission to the NRHC, the RPNA called for greater acknowledgement of the role pharmacists play in rural health care.
"The consultation paper does not do justice to the complexity of rural pharmacy practice and its crucial underpinning role in rural health infrastructure," the RPNA said.
"Collectively rural pharmacists spend millions of dollars of their own money establishing and growing primary health care infrastructure, skills and resources throughout rural Australia."
The group warned the lack of continuity of care in Australia was "one of the most damaging features of the ad hoc approach to rural health workforce", noting that despite having the heaviest patient contact rate of any rural primary care provider pharmacists were "routinely overlooked by rural health planners".
The RPNA called for new remuneration models to "incentivise team-based care" in rural areas.
The group also flagged concerns about the rural pharmacy workforce, saying it "is in crisis and yet community pharmacies -- despite their accessibility and importance to the viability of both GP practices and rural hospitals -- have been conspicuously excluded from recent government initiatives to enhance rural health workforce".
The RPNA noted that pharmacists working in remote areas expected higher salaries than those working in the city, placing pressure on owners, leading to calls for new remunerated service programs to support team-based care, such as GP Care Plans.
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