Workforce shortages, maldistribution, diversity, and scope of practice reform.

Tom Simpson, pharmacist and national president of Advanced Pharmacy Australia, talks about workforce shortages, maldistribution by specialty and geography, diversity, and scope of practice reform, upskilling pharmacy technicians, and the need for pharmacy to have its own workforce strategy. He was pleased to introduce Health Minister Mark Butler to a promising collaborative model of care in Adelaide that has dramatically improved safety of care and keeps patients in hospital for less time. “Imagine if you could free up one in eight hospital beds across the country tomorrow just by putting in an hour of collaborative, multi-disciplinary top of scope practice at the very beginning.”