The Power of negotiation The Power of negotiation

The Power of negotiation

The Digest is the Guild’s pre-eminent publication presenting an annual snapshot of the operation and financial performance of Australian community pharmacies. Over the past half a century it has shown the growing role in Australia’s primary healthcare network that community pharmacists play – a role that was further elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data presented here provide a crucial understanding of the issues faced by our members. Insights drawn from the Digest are the basis of negotiations with government that set the stage for ongoing pharmacy operations in Australia.

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The value of data
For Guild members, the Digest provides valuable management information to pharmacy owners and managers. Analysis making up the 50th edition is based on our largest sample yet of community pharmacies, to whom we owe great thanks. Without your generous support, the publication would not be possible.
Major successes for community pharmacy
Digest data forms the basis for the Guild’s advocacy and negotiations. It has paved the way for a range of successful outcomes over the years including the seven Community Pharmacy Agreements, or CPAs.
Timeline
50 years of digest data
Over the past 50 years, Digest data entrusted to us has been relied upon to advocate for the needs of community pharmacy. Empowered by this data, the Guild has achieved significant benefits for patients and the community pharmacies that serve them. The Guild Digest is the largest longitudinal study of community pharmacy operations there is and therefore a trusted source of pharmacy management information.
Beyond the dispensary
In the years since the first CPA, a steady and significant evolution has taken place in the role of community pharmacies. As pharmacists continue working toward utilising their comprehensive training, they increasingly offer services in medication management, expert advice, vaccinations, wound care and much more, seeing them emerge from behind the dispensary onto the forefront of Australia’s healthcare frontier.
The journey to full scope
Operating at full scope will see a pharmacist authorised to perform – and be accountable for – the full suite of duties for which they are educated and competent. Scope of practice is time-sensitive and dynamic. What may be described as ‘full scope of practice’ today will not be the same as ‘full scope of practice’ in years to come. Nor is it necessarily the same from one pharmacist to another. Listen to these pharmacists speak about their journey to full scope.
Professional services income growth

When you need them most

In Australia, the authorisation and funding for pharmacist scope of practice lags far behind the education, competencies and capabilities of the pharmacist workforce. The pandemic has highlighted the true potential for community pharmacists to perform at their full scope of practice, and in doing so relieve pressure on other parts of the healthcare system. Take COVID-19 vaccinations in pharmacies as one such example, as shown in the graph demonstrating total vaccinations administered.

Bringing pharmacists forward
An evolution is continuing to bring pharmacists forward of the dispensary onto the forefront of health advice, increasing the breadth of patient interactions into a range of professional services. This evolution is mirrored by store design that puts patient healthcare first.
Pharmacy Accessibility

Opportunities for the future

The Guild’s vision is for community pharmacy to thrive within a vibrant, dynamic and commercially prosperous network of businesses operating with medication advice, management and safety at its core. An opportunity assessment was commissioned to determine the range of economic and health benefits for the Australian people that would be derived from empowering pharmacists to operate at their full scope. Presented here are the national benefits across ten targeted health conditions.

ey opportunity assessment

Accessibility of pharmacy

Australia’s community pharmacy network is spread across the country from the most remote locations, throughout cities, towns and countryside. In capital cities, 97 per cent of people have access to at least one pharmacy within 2.5 km radius, while in the rest of Australia, it’s 66 per cent. Digest data aides understanding of the vast array of pharmacies across the network.

Empowering the pharmacy workforce
Empowered by data-driven insights, the Guild has fought for pharmacies in remote and regional locations. The second CPA saw the introduction of the Isolated and Remote Pharmacy allowance (later the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance) ensuring pharmacies remained viable and staffed with professionals providing care in remote locations.
Pharmacy across the country
Did you know that for every 4,372 Australians, there is one community pharmacy in operation? That’s more than 5,875 community pharmacies spread across the country. Australians visit a pharmacy, on average, 18 times per year, making them the most frequently accessed health destination.
We know the stakes are high.
CPA SIGNINGS THROUGH THE YEARS
Suzanne Greenwood, Scott Morrison, George Tambassis, Trent Twomey, Greg Hunt, and Michael McCormick at the signing of the 7th CPA in 2020.
The Guild seal is stamped on the signed 5th Community Pharmacy Agreement.                
The signing of the Price Disclosure amendment to 2005 4th agreement signed at APP2007.
Dr Michael Wooldridge, Minister for Health and Aged Care (L) and John Bronger, Guild National President in 2000 - signing the 3rd CPA.
“Bureacracy” cartoon drawn for Pharmacy Review Quarterly, Vol 19 Number 1, May 1995 and signing of the 2nd CPA.
John Bronger (L), Guild National President and Dr Carmen Lawrence (R), Minister for Human Services and Health in 1995 – signing the 2nd CPA.

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