AUSTRALIAN pharmacists' scope of practice should be set in comparison to pharmacists in other developed nations, not the medical profession, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, believes.
Speaking at the Guild's Pharmacy Industry Roadshow in Sydney on Mon, Twomey said efforts to extend pharmacists' scope of practice, and plans to boost pharmacists' qualifications to a Doctor of Pharmacy (PD 06 Sep) were not designed to see the profession "encroach" on the Australian Medical Association's (AMA's) "turf".
"We don't define the practice of community pharmacy relative to another profession," he said.
"They will say we are trying to cut in on their turf, we're trying to encroach on what it is that they do.
"Of course nothing could be further from the truth.
"What we're doing is defining the practice of community pharmacy in Australia based on international community pharmacy standards.
"The community pharmacy profession in other highly developed countries has evolved and we have not - out of 38 [OECD] countries we have the second lowest scope of practice.
"The funny thing is that they're talking about scope of practice relative to them, we're talking about scope of practice relative to the patient.
"Quite frankly, there are no doctors in general practice anyway, and it's getting harder and harder to get one.
"I feel sorry for them, because I love my GPs - I think they should be properly funded, properly remunerated and properly looked after, but pharmacy does not define itself relative to the medical profession, we define ourselves relative to our peers."
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