By Suzanne Greenwood, Executive Director
This time last year when I sat down to write my editorial I, like everyone else, had high hopes that the pressures and demands of the COVID-19 era would soon be an event that we could put behind us. The past year has, however, shown that COVID-19 is something we all have to live with – in one form or another – both personally and professionally.
Yet it is symbolic of the great profession of community pharmacy that rising to meet the demands of such challenges brings out the best in us, and the past 12 months have been no different.
This has been epitomised not only by the ongoing COVID-19 vaccinations and services which community pharmacies provide, but by everything else that often goes unnoticed.
The six finalists for our Pharmacy of the Year Award, which the judging panel found to be of the highest quality yet seen in the more than 20 years the awards have been presented, are proof of this.
The finalists, chosen from a huge number of nominations, show how pharmacies have responded to the changed environment and adapted to meet the different patient demands and expectations over the past year. The pharmacies have innovated and developed solutions to previously unheard of clinical and business challenges.
And all this in the face of the huge impact COVID-19 has had on the community pharmacy sector and our patients.
The way the sector has responded to COVID-19 and other challenges has also had a major effect on another big development during the year; the momentum towards pharmacists working to full scope of practice. Proving how innovative and adaptable the sector has shown itself to be – and the difference this makes to improving accessibility of care for patients - has underpinned the acceptance by many State and Territory jurisdictions to put in place legislation to take steps to allow pharmacists to work to full scope of practice.
To be clear, when we speak of full scope of practice, we are looking at pharmacists being able to provide the full range of services that they are skilled and trained to provide. We are not seeking to reinvent the wheel, rather to use the wheel effectively and to the full benefit of our patients and their carers.
A good example of this was the successful uncomplicated urinary tract infection pilot in Queensland which saw some 9000 women access the service through community pharmacies, often because they could not get a GP appointment for this painful condition. Some 1000 of these women said if the service had not been available in community pharmacies, they would have presented at emergency departments.
The success, and the impact the service will potentially have on health budgets and in easing pressure on GPs, has seen it introduced permanently in Queensland, with other jurisdictions looking to follow. It’s a win for the health system and, more importantly, for patients.
One of the great achievements of the year has been the Affordable Medicines Now campaign which has resulted in legislation being passed in Federal Parliament to reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co-payment from $42.50 to $30 from 1 January 2023.
While led by the Guild, the impetus for the campaign came from community pharmacists who were increasingly seeing patients unable to afford their prescription medicines and making difficult choices about which medicines to have dispensed or which family members might miss out on their medicines that month.
The strength of the campaign came from the grassroots support of community pharmacists and this was reinforced by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, at the Guild’s annual dinner a couple of weeks ago when he said: “What was really compelling was not just the hip-pocket benefit of your affordable medicines policy; it was the stories that pharmacist after pharmacist told us . . . stories of people coming in with a handful of scripts and asking your members for advice about which ones they didn’t need to fill this month.”
We are not done with that campaign yet and we will continue to advocate for greater cost-of-living pressure relief for patients by having the general co-payment reduced to $19. And again, it will be community pharmacists whose stories of patient care and their challenge in affording medicines that will sway the politicians and decision-makers.
So all-in-all it’s been a tough year yet again, but one in which the community pharmacy sector has achieved a great deal. But above all, the greatest achievement has been the fact that our community pharmacists and staff are always there for their patients – no matter what. I’ve had my fourth COVID-19 Vaccine, all four in Pharmacy … so a personal thanks from me for keeping me and my family safe and well in 2022. Here’s to continued improvements to the accessibility and affordability of healthcare in 2023.
