Pharmacy Healthcare Services

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister update the house on what action the government is taking to expand healthcare services delivered by pharmacies?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:51): This is a really exciting development with an expansion of the availability of services that people will be able to get through their local community pharmacy. I want to particularly pay tribute to the member for Badcoe. We wanted to get this question in while she was still with us.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: No, she is going to take a little break. She might well be in need of some baby Panadol, etc., in the future. The good news is that she is going to be able to get access to more services through her local community pharmacy in the future. The member for Badcoe really led the issue in terms of being able to access additional women's health services through pharmacies.

We clearly had the issue where many women in South Australia who had UTIs were not able to get access to timely GP services across the state and had no option but to go to emergency departments or suffer significant pain in doing so. We heard from many pharmacies that said the number of people who rang them up asking for antibiotics in those situations was significant.

Thanks to the member for Badcoe in leading her committee, as well as the member for Gibson, the member for Waite and also the member for Frome and the member for Unley, they have recommended to this house that we undertake reforms to allow pharmacies to prescribe for UTIs. Within the next two weeks, that reform will be starting here in South Australia.

That is going to be an excellent reform for women in South Australia to be able to get access to those antibiotics in a timely way, in a safe way, through their community pharmacy. In addition to that, within the two months after that, we will be allowing access for people to get represcribed their oral contraceptive pill as well through their community pharmacy.

I want to thank the member for Badcoe for her advocacy on this issue as well. It's not without controversy, of course, but we think that it's the right move, it's a safe move and it is going to provide much better access to health care for women right across this state.

In addition to that, we are providing additional services for people through their pharmacies in lots of other ways including, in the past few weeks, the opening of the state's first 24/7 community pharmacy. National Pharmacies at Norwood is now operating 24/7 right through the year and we have seen significant demand at that pharmacy in just the first few weeks since it opened. In fact, in its first two weeks of operation, we have seen over 750 people go to that pharmacy in the hours that it otherwise would have been closed through the night. That's over 50 people per day getting access to help, prescriptions and assistance through that pharmacy, who otherwise would have to wait with difficulty or would have had to go to an emergency department.

The good news is that we are about to see two additional pharmacies open as well. I know it is particularly exciting to the member for Elder that the Clovelly Park Chemist Warehouse will soon be opening, and also to the member for King that the Saints Chemist Warehouse at Salisbury will also be open 24/7. This will be of great benefit to people from the north to the south across Adelaide to get access to that care, whether it's prescriptions, health advice or baby Panadol—all of which will be available 24 hours a day, providing much-needed care for people in the community.