Pharmacy Daily | Scope and salaries need boost: PSA

PHARMACISTS need to be empowered to use their full scope of practice and base salaries should increase to a minimum of $80,000 by 2023, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) believes.

The PSA's Pharmacists in 2023: Roles and Remuneration report, released at PSA19 in Sydney on Sat, warned artificial barriers limiting young pharmacists' ability to practice to their full scope have caused "many of the pharmacy profession's best and brightest to leave the profession".

Adding early career pharmacists were "concerned the flow-on from this is an impediment to fair and reasonable remuneration for their training, skills and expertise."

PSA Acting CEO, Dr Shane Jackson, described the current Pharmacy Award rate "horrendous", with the report calling for the a minimum indicative salary of $80,000 a year plus superannuation for entry-level fully registered pharmacists, by 2023.

"This is a reference point for where we need to get to [by 2023]," he said.

"Our two points of reference now are the Pharmacy Award, which is not indicative of the expertise, the skills and the training of pharmacists, and the annual PPA (Professional Pharmacists Australia) report which shows the current status, and both of those not being adequate as a reference point to take us into the future."

PSA National President, Dr Chris Freemen, added the issues around the limitations place on pharmacists' roles and remuneration were not only a source of brain drain and dissatisfaction, but also made pharmacy less appealing to students considering a career in the profession.

"If you're having to invest four years of undergraduate study plus an internship, plus or minus post graduate study, but your minimum wage is going to be $27 an hour, you've really need to start thinking about why you would be investing that amount of time and effort into achieving that," he said.

"There is professional satisfaction, but that's coupled and partnered with the remuneration that one would get.

"So not only are we having pharmacists leave because they're professionally dissatisfied, but it's also because they're not getting paid enough."

Under the PSA's remuneration framework, outlined in the report, base salaries for pharmacists would grow with experience and progression into advanced practice.

The report recommended that by 2023, pharmacists with two to three year's experience who had started to transition to advanced practice should earn at least $100,000, while those with up to five years experience and at level two on the PSA's continuum to advanced practice should be paid an indicative salary of $120,000, while those with more the five years' experience with highest competency levels of advanced practice should be paid a minimum of $140,000 plus super.