MBS Review an opportunity for pharmacists in collaborative care
September 2016

Expanding innovative models of evidence-based, inter-professional health care and better utilising the role of highly-trained pharmacists will improve patient outcomes and ease the burden on medical professionals, the peak organisation for pharmacists, the PSA said today.

An interim report released by the Federal Government today on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) highlighted a range of reforms and cost-saving measures, including the need to optimise high-value care and minimise low-value care.

PSA National President Joe Demarte said the MBS review – which PSA provided a submission to last year – is an important opportunity to improve outcomes for patients with chronic diseases by optimising the contribution of pharmacists in multidisciplinary care teams and primary health care settings.

“As the most accessible health professionals in Australia, pharmacists can play an active role in strengthening evidence-based health policy, services and payment systems, to deliver better health outcomes for consumers,” Mr Demarte said.

PSA recently called on the Government to ensure that pharmacists’ skills were maximised and highlighted the integral role pharmacists can play in national healthcare reform.  These included:

• Ensuring the Health Care Homes initiative is appropriately funded and based on best practice, evidence-based models of care which utilise pharmacists
• Exploring interprofessional collaboration, particularly between General Practitioners and pharmacists, for Australians with chronic and complex conditions
• Involving pharmacists in Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) teams to reduce medication misadventure, medication error and resulting medication-related hospital admissions
• Supporting culturally-responsive pharmacist care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to improve medication adherence and reduce chronic disease
• Investing in preventive health programs delivered through the highly-accessible network of community pharmacies, including immunisation and smoking cessation services.

PSA has also urged the Government to commit to ensuring that Australian community pharmacies remain viable and accessible hubs of preventive and primary health care.

“All of these services are well within a pharmacist’s current scope of practice,” Mr Demarte said.

“Optimising pharmacists’ contribution in collaborative models of prevention and management of chronic disease has the value-adding capacity to significantly improve the health and wellbeing of all Australians.”

Time is running out to develop your CPD plan
September 2016

Pharmacists are reminded to complete a compulsory Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Plan to meet the looming September 30 deadline, the peak national organisation for pharmacists Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) urged today.

Under new Pharmacy Board of Australia  requirements, every registered pharmacist (except non-practising pharmacists) must declare on registration they have a CPD plan to outline their development needs and have completed 40 credits of relevant CPD before the end of September.

Fortunately, to help pharmacists meet this deadline, PSA has pioneered an intuitive, online CPD Planning Tool to help pharmacists easily identify professional development needs relevant to their scope of practice and competencies and find relevant CPD to undertake.

The new, user-friendly PSA CPD tool is mobile friendly and enables pharmacists to develop their annual CPD plan easily and efficiently on a mobile phone or tablet in 20 to 30 minutes.

The tool has been a key focus during free PSA workshops, held across Australia, which have received a strong response with more than 2500 pharmacists registered over recent weeks.

PSA National Vice President Michelle Lynch said time was running out for pharmacists who have not completed a CPD plan.

“PSA is urging all pharmacists to ensure they have a compulsory CPD plan to meet the September 30 timeframe – it’s not worth taking a risk by ignoring this important deadline,” Ms Lynch said.

“The new tool allows you to identify your scope of practice and where you want to focus.”

PSA offers an extensive range of accredited CPD available with more than 2500 hours of online CPD including recorded lectures available.

PSA spokesperson and leading pharmacist Dr Shane Jackson said PSA’s “seamless” tool takes the hassle out of completing a CPD plan.

“Everybody needs to do this – and the new PSA CPD tool is a very easy way of identifying where you want to go with your career and how you want to get there,” Dr Jackson said.

“The profession has been looking for a tool like this for a long time to be able to help pharmacists develop a learning plan. Using the tool, CPD and learning opportunities are much more focussed around your development needs.

“CPD is important because it allows people to develop professionally and become better pharmacists – if we all become better pharmacists, then the professional moves forward collectively.”

All pharmacists – including non-PSA members – can attend the free PSA workshops being held across Australia in metropolitan and regional areas, offering hands-on guidance and support in developing and maintaining a CPD plan.  Register for the workshops, click here>>