Pharmacy Daily | Securing CPA deal a KPI

SIGNING off on the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) before 31 Dec is a key performance indicator (KPI) for Department of Health Secretary, Glenys Beauchamp.

Speaking at Pharmacy Connect on Fri, Beauchamp confirmed getting a tripartite agreement, with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, completed before the end of the year was one of the benchmarks for her personal success.

Achieving that goal would see the 7CPA signed-off six months before the expiry of the 6CPA, and be a stark contrast to the last negotiations, which concluded in May 2015, just weeks before the agreement was due to start.

"In terms of the CPA, our goal is to sign by the end of 2019 - that's one of my performance indicators - so we have to get cracking on this," she said.

"We've already started and I've had one roundtable with a number of stakeholders and everyone seems to be an expert - not just the pharmacists - everyone wants to have a finger in the pie, and it is important that we canvas diverse views," Beauchamp said.

"We've got some big challenges ahead in finalising that agreement, and as Trent (Twomey - Pharmacy Guild of Australia chief negotiator) and others know, managing different points-of-view is going to be pretty important.

"Our goal in government is to listen and develop the evidence-base in finalising that agreement."

Beauchamp told delegates that a second stakeholder roundtable meeting is scheduled for Oct.

"I'd really like to be able to look at problem solving in that [meeting], rather than looking at those areas where we can't agree," she said.

Beauchamp added that pharmacists will play an important role in the Government's 10-year national preventative health strategy, which is currently being finalised.

Guild negotiator, Trent Twomey, said he was focused on delivering the 7CPA with 25.5 million Australians in mind.