The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s Queensland branch recently held its parliamentary dinner at Queensland Parliament House.
On Tuesday evening over 110 guests attended the event, including parliamentarians, Guild members and pharmacy industry representatives.
Attendees heard keynote addresses from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Leader of the Opposition Deb Frecklington, who both committed their support to community pharmacy.
Premier Palaszczuk recognised the importance of community pharmacy within the health sector and pharmacists working to their full scope of practice.
“With almost 450 million visits annually, the community pharmacies of today play a critical role in the delivery of healthcare in Australia, particularly here in Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“My government is pleased to support the expanded role of pharmacists in improving the management of chronic disease and illness and in the provision of government healthcare programs.
“We also acknowledge the important contribution of pharmacists working to the top of their scope of practice to firmly grasp this critical role in preventative care and the management of chronic disease.”
Mr Frecklington spoke about the LNP’s commitment to the Queensland health system.
“The LNP is determined to engage constructively with every professional organisation in our health system because improving the health of all Queenslanders is our common goal,” Ms Frecklington said.
Queensland Branch President and National Senior Vice President Trent Twomey reiterated the significant role all 1,140 community pharmacy’s across Queensland have in delivering primary health care.
“Each week 305,000 Queenslanders visit a community pharmacy, that’s 15.8 million individual visits a year, which is more visits than to a general practice or a community controlled health organisation, in fact it is more visits than a bank, a post office or a community club,” Mr Twomey said.
“There are some 6,000 registered pharmacists and 16,000 pharmacy assistants that have under-utilised skills and knowledge; they need to be able to perform more, to do more and to deliver more to Queenslanders.”
