Community Pharmacy

Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (14:48): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. How is the government increasing access to care for South Australians through community pharmacies?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:48): I thank the member for Dunstan for her question and her very significant interest in terms of pharmacy and the role that it can provide in our healthcare services, and particularly in the very important 24-hour pharmacy that we have established on The Parade at Norwood through National Pharmacies, which has been incredibly well received and incredibly popular with the community. This is one of four 24-hour pharmacies that we have established across the state, with the others, of course, being Salisbury Plain, Clovelly Park and now the new one at Hallett Cove, which is great news for the member for Black.

I am very excited to inform the house that, as of this month, we will now crack 400,000 services that these four community pharmacies have seen in times when otherwise they would have been closed. That is 400,000 times that South Australians have been to these four pharmacies, received advice from a pharmacist, had their script dispensed, been able to get baby Panadol and other essential items at times when otherwise they would not have been able to. I am also able to advise the house that we are in the process of extending the contracts for those pharmacies for another year. We want to make sure that this is a program which continues long into the future. These are becoming well-known locations, and we want to continue that for at least another year at those locations.

This is just one element of our big expansion that's happening in terms of the role that community pharmacists can play across our state. Already, we've done some excellent work, and it's been ably supported by the work of the member for Badcoe and the committee that she established looking at urinary tract infections and the work that pharmacists can do there. We have extended the scope of practice for pharmacists to be able to help women across the state. We can see the material benefit now in the reduction of the number of women who are presenting to our emergency departments in those age cohorts.

We now see a 27 per cent reduction of UTI presentations at our emergency departments since we brought in those requirements. This shows very clearly that pharmacists can provide that role safely, they can provide it with care, and it can reduce pressure on the rest of the healthcare system. So thank you to the member for Badcoe for her advocacy on that. Of course, this is just one element of what we believe is a broader scope of what pharmacists can do.

I was very excited to be able to announce this week that, starting from next year, the new Adelaide University will be starting a new course for a graduate diploma for pharmacists to undertake an even broader scope of practice to be able to care for more minor conditions at local pharmacies. In terms of this one-year course, which they have developed, part of the benefit of the merger has been the bringing together of the pharmacy school and the University of Adelaide Medical School. Through a combination of that they have been able to develop this course, and it's going to enable a whole range of different diseases and conditions to be treated through training of our pharmacists.

The state government will be supporting this. We will be providing a $7,000 grant for metro pharmacists to undertake training and an $8,500 grant for regional pharmacists to undertake this training. We have gone through the process of confirming the conditions that will be available now, and this will be starting from next year. Already, there are some pharmacists who have undertaken this training interstate, and so they will be able to do this from next year. These conditions include things such as nausea, vomiting, wound care, muscular care, reflux and rhinitis, which will be able to be treated at community pharmacies. Thank you to all of our community pharmacists for the work that they do. We are backing you, and we want to see a broader range of help that you can get through your pharmacy.