The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of $11.7 million in funding for research into medicine safety and the quality use of medicines.
This funding grant is to be delivered under the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), which is part of the Health’s Minister’s commitment to progress medicine safety as a National Health Priority Area.
PSA National President, Associate Professor Chris Freeman applauds the announcement, saying that the research undertaken through this grant funding is an important step to improving the health of Australians through medicine safety.
“The intended outcome of the research grant opportunity is to reduce the amount of medicine-related harm in the community and help promote the safe and effective use of medicines,” says Associate Professor Freeman.
“This is on the back of PSA’s seminal Medicine Safety: Take Care report, which estimates that 250,000 Australians are hospitalised each year and another 400,000 presents to emergency departments as a result of medication error, misuse and misadventure, costing Australia $1.4 billion in hospital admissions.”
Associate Professor Freeman underscores the important role of pharmacists in being the “custodians of medicine safety” and says that pharmacists and pharmacy staff “must play a key role in order to reduce the medication misadventure in Australia”.
This recent funding announcement is a “critical first step in the right direction”, according to Associate Professor Freeman.
“PSA congratulates [the funding] recipients and looks forward to working with both current and future applications, and the wider research community, to tackle the challenges of reducing medicine-related harm in Australia,” he says.
