Professional services training - APP2018

A CPD-ACCREDITED, preconference workshop open to Guild Member pharmacies will be held prior to APP2018 on Wed 02 May outlining how to make professional services a priority in community pharmacy.

The interactive workshop will cover the process of implementing and enhancing professional services and give attendees a platform to share ideas and up-to-date processes from a variety of angles such as financial, workflow and marketing considerations, as well as sharing of real life examples.

This pre-conference workshop is presented by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Queensland Branch Business Support team, along with special guest presenters Andrew Pattinson and Bianca Havukainen from Health Advice Plus.

The workshop costs $149 per person (including lunch) and will be held from 10am to 4pm in Meeting Room 2 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. Registrations close 27 Apr. To register and for more information, CLICK HERE.

HEALTH Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed that the government’s response to the controversial King Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation will be handed down in about four weeks’ time.

Hunt spoke yesterday at the 2018 TerryWhite Chemmart Masterclass in Melbourne and, without revealing the full outcomes, noted that he had taken a “fairly conservative approach”.

“Some of the recommendations were quite radical and would have shaken the pharmacy sector up... my primary objective has been to give you the security and continuity to get on with your business”.

Hunt noted that one of the key King proposals, around watering down the current location rules model, had effectively already been rejected, with the government’s successful legislation to remove the proposed 2020 sunset rules.

The minister said in so doing “a major threat to your bankability was removed”.

He said other matters around the King Review were still awaiting finalisation under the cabinet process, but fundamentally “I want to provide surety for the current model and not disrupt pharmacy as it currently stands”.

Questions from the audience about Medicare provider numbers for pharmacists and the removal of the $1 discount were greeted with a less encouraging response, with Hunt indicating little was likely to change in these areas.

However the minister said a solution to cash-flow issues around high cost medicines was imminent, and in his speech also urged states and territories to follow Victoria’s lead and give pharmacies access to influenza vaccine stocks available under the National Immunisation Program, which are launching today.

Hunt is pictured above with TerryWhite Chemmart pharmacists, from left: Chris Campbell, Judy Plunkett, Lucy Walker, Brad Smithson and Susan Lee.