Pharmacy Daily | Guild goes behind the scenes

THE National Pharmaceutical Services Association (NPSA) recently invited Branch Committee members and senior representatives from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Queensland, to a medicine distribution centre, enabling them to see the operations of the medicine supply chain firsthand.

The behind-the-scenes tour was hosted by NPSA at API's Berrinba facility in Brisbane, one of the NPSA network's newest member distribution centres which is equipped with world-class infrastructure and operating systems.

Queensland Branch President Chris Owen was joined by nine other Guild representatives at the 40,000sqm site which opened earlier this year and employs 134 people (PD 03 Apr).

NPSA also highlighted the latest innovations in bringing medicines to Australian patients, including cold chain management and secure handling of scheduled medicines.

NPSA Chair Richard Vincent said, "We are very proud to support Australia's 5,900 pharmacies with safe and efficient distribution of PBS medicines generally within 24 hours of ordering them.

"This means our community pharmacists can dispense the treatments their patients need when they need them.

"Our partnership with pharmacy has never been more important as community pharmacy expands its role in prescribing, immunising and providing frontline healthcare.

"We greatly valued the opportunity to showcase the work that NPSA members are doing to manage the full range of PBS medicines and all other allied health products that support a patient's care."

Owen thanked NPSA for the opportunity to see its medicines distribution work firsthand.

"As pharmacists continue to advance their scope and deliver more frontline health services, the reliability and efficiency of medicine distribution is even more critical," he said.

"This visit has highlighted not only the scale and capability of the systems that support our profession, but also the innovation driving continuous improvement in medicine access." KB