New rural pharmacy alliance
April 20, 2012
THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia,
the Society of Hospital Pharmacists
of Australia (SHPA), the Australian
College of Pharmacy (ACP) and
National Australian Pharmacy
Students’ Association (NAPSA) have
joined forces to forge the new-look
Rural Pharmacists Australia (RPA)
group.
The RPA was originally founded
17 years ago as a member of the
National Rural Health Alliance.
Founding members of the RPA in
1995 included the Guild, SHPA and
the Pharmaceutical Society of
Australia.
The PSA left the alliance last year,
whilst the ACP and NAPSA signed
up this year.
“[The group] represents
thousands of individual
pharmacists and pharmacy owners
who provide services in remote and
rural Australia, in hospital
multidisciplinary teams, as
community pharmacists or
pharmacists in training,” a
statement from the group said.
The reformed group met earlier in
the month and set out new terms
of reference to “ensure a collective
voice issues of common interest”.
In a statement, the group pledged
to represent the voice of rural
pharmacists and pharmacies across
the nation.
“The membership in the NRHA
assists the RPA to add a pharmacy
voice to national rural health policy
development and implementation,”
the group said.
“The RPA is the logical rural
pharmacy representative group for
NRHA – and government and policy
makers – to be approached to
achieve health reform and health
solutions for patients as we
represent the breadth of the
profession. We can provide
practical and credible solutions to
rural policy and funding issues,” the
group added.
In addition, the new-look group’s
inaugural Chair has been named as
the Guild’s NT Branch President and
National Councillor, Terry Battalis,
whilst SHPA’s National Rural
Advisor Anne Leversha has been
named as it’s Deputy Chair.
Issues on the group’s agenda for the
coming months include rural, remote
and indigenous health policy.
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