Door opens for Doctor of Pharmacy

PHARMACY students may one day be completing Doctor of Pharmacy programs at Australian universities, with a clause in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) opening the door for the development of new courses.

Clause 12.4 of the 7CPA between the Pharmacy Guild of Australian and the Federal Government, states, “the signatories agree to take all reasonable steps available to them to enable the holder of an Australian Qualifications Framework Level 9 Masters Degree (extended) in pharmacy to be treated by exemption as a Level 10 qualification similar to the treatment of other health professions covered under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme”.

Council of Pharmacy Schools of Australia and New Zealand (CPS) President, Professor Peter Little (pictured), welcomed the inclusion of the clause, noting it was one of a number of issues the Council has been looking at with a view to strengthening the future of pharmacy education and creating a workforce that is ready to work to its full scope of practice.

“CPS was very pleased to see that the Government and the Guild could see the value in that for the future of the pharmacy profession,” he said.

“There’s quite a lot of work to be done and there’s quite a lot of processes to be followed to achieve that outcome, and we also need to bring along with use the Australian Pharmacy Council and the Pharmacy Board of Australia, as well as the whole profession.

“[The clause] opens the door for the processes that have been going along to continue.”

Little noted that the quality of pharmacy education in Australia is of a high standard, with three Australian schools of pharmacy or pharmaceutical science in the top 20 globally.

However, he said the introduction of a Doctor of Pharmacy qualification would ensure the reciprocity of people who get Australian degrees to work overseas, while making the prospect of studying pharmacy in Australia more attractive to students from around the world.