Australia’s system of community pharmacy and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme are recognised as world-leading. They are among the most successful and strongly supported aspects of our health system.
• There are about 5,500 community pharmacies in Australia.
• It’s been estimated that the average Australian visits a pharmacy 14 times a year. Annually there are about 350 million individual patient visits to pharmacies.
• Location rules ensure that pharmacies are well spread across all States and Territories to meet community need, and ensure timely access to PBS medicines for all.
• Community pharmacy is a $15 billion a year health industry. Pharmacies dispense more than 290 million prescriptions a year.
• Community pharmacies employ about 60,000 highly skilled staff across Australia, including nearly 20,000 registered pharmacists.
• The network of community pharmacies means that community pharmacists remain the most accessible of all health professionals, often available to give advice without an appointment and at no charge.
• Consumers needing medicine or health-related advice know where to find a pharmacy and know that, by law, a pharmacist will always be present to provide that advice.
• An American study of how well people comply with their doctors’ instructions when taking their medicines found that for every one hundred prescriptions written, only 88 are filled. That means at least 12 patients did not even get the first prescription filled. Only 15 to 20 of those 100 people actually took the medication exactly as prescribed by the doctor, including all repeats.
• In Australia there are at least 190,000 hospitalisations a year attributable to medication misadventure.
Non- compliance, or non-adherence as it is sometimes called, is a major health concern, especially among older patients. Maximising the effective use of medicines is an important role for community pharmacists.
• More than 9 million dose administration aid devices are provided each year to Australians living in their own homes. These devices help ensure that patients take the right medicine at the right time, reducing medication misadventure, and allowing more people to live independently at home for longer.
• Pharmacists are one of the top three most trusted professions along with nurses and doctors. Public opinion surveys have shown that 90% of patients are satisfied with their community pharmacy.
• More than 90 per cent of pharmacies nationwide have achieved quality accreditation.
For further information contact:
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Phone: 02 6270 1888
Fax: 02 6270 1800
Email: guild.nat@guild.org.au
Level 2, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 Australia PO Box 310, Fyshwick ACT 2609 Australia
www.guild.org.au
