The critical role the community pharmacy network plays in the health system, especially in rural and remote locations where they may be the only health professional in town, has been highlighted during a Federal Government Senate inquiry.
The Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into the provision of health services to outer metropolitan, rural and regional Australians heard evidence as to how services in regional, rural and remote areas could be improved.
The Guild’s Senior Pharmacist, Clinical Governance and Workforce, Claire Bekema, said there were more than 400 pharmacies in towns where there was only one medical centre, or none at all.
Like other health professions, community pharmacy was experiencing significant workforce issues, most prominently in rural Australia. This was a major contributing factor to the lack of access to health services experienced by Australians living in regional, rural and remote areas.
“The Guild believes that service gaps could be addressed by pharmacists working to their full scope of practice due to their extensive professional training, skills and knowledge,” she said.
“Pharmacists are being under-utilised, primarily due to legislative barriers currently limiting their scope of practice.
“Rural pharmacists working to full scope of practice would contribute to increased access to medicines and primary healthcare services in areas where medical services may be overstretched, limited in hours or unavailable.
“With a shortage of GPs in regional, rural and remote areas, future strategies need to be comprehensive and adopt an approach that looks at a suite of solutions that is focused not on one health profession but on how local collaborative models of care utilising all clinicians working to their full scope of practice can meet the health needs of their community.”
ACT Branch President of the Guild Simon Blacker told the inquiry the Guild also believed there needed to be an equitable approach to support funding of rural primary healthcare workforce policies and programs.
“A stronger rural health strategy is focused on general practice,” he said.
“The Workforce Incentive Program Practice Stream provides support for a general practice to employ allied health professionals, including a non-dispensing pharmacist, potentially diverting the available community pharmacy workforce and placing at risk the sustainability of the local rural pharmacy.
“Whilst there are a number of community pharmacy workforce programs funded through the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement, these are not of the same quantum as GP workforce programs.
“The Guild believes that rural workforce strategies need to be holistic and equitable across all the health professions to ensure that Australians who are living in regional, rural and remote areas have access to the same breadth of primary and allied health practitioners and services as those in the city do.”
