Immigration key to solving shortages

PHARMACY Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, is urging pharmacy owners to share stories of their staffing struggles as he seeks to build a case of pharmacist immigration.

Speaking during a Guild update webinar last week, Twomey described the community pharmacy sector’s current workforce issues as “the number one reason I get phone calls from members at the moment, because we can’t get staff”.

“One of the things we’re working on at the moment is with Minister Alex Hawke, the Minister for Immigration, to make it easier [for pharmacists to move to Australia] when the borders open,” he said.

“We have that temporary inclusion of community pharmacists [on the Skilled Occupations List] for the purposes of responding to the pandemic, but we’re going to have an influx of skilled migrants as we grow our way out of this massive debt burden that we have as a country similar to what we did after World War II - and I need to make sure that a larger percentage of those skilled migrants are community pharmacists.

“But to do that I need evidence, because without evidence all we have is really strong opinions.

“I’m fine for the evidence to be anecdotal, I’m fine for it to be a personal example, I don’t care if it’s just one paragraph.

“But could you please shoot off an email telling me your specific circumstance and how hard you found it to get staff, whether it be in traditional hours, non-traditional hours, in a metropolitan area or regional, rural or remote locations.

“I need these examples to be able to build that case.”

Twomey also confirmed that the Guild has been in discussions with employee pharmacists’ union, Professional Pharmacists Australia, in relation to the ongoing workforce issues facing the sector.