Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha’s) national president, Tom Simpson, and vice president, Kate O’Hara, chat with AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh about a challenging year – from the current fluid shortages to changes to scope.

They begin with the change of identity for AdPha, which O’Hara says will hopefully useful to highlight the work that its members actually do… both in and out of hospitals.

People in governance roles in the organisation get a lot of requests for advocacy, she tells McMaugh – “And when we try and raise our voices or get in the room, people are like, ‘oh, well you just do hospital’.

“And it’s sometimes hard to complete the work that our members are asking us to do because of the different locations and the different roles that they practice in.

“And it’s hoped by having a name that’s a little bit wider that it’ll be easier for people to say, okay, this isn’t just about hospitals, and we can do that work that members are asking us to do,” she explains.

Meanwhile Simpson talks about the many other changes which took place over the year.

“[M]edication shortages and currently the fluid shortages are very much top of mind for the kinds of challenges that we’re all dealing with,” he says. “I think I looked at the TGA website and there was something like 500 shortages just the other day…

“It has been a year of opportunity, I think, as well. We’ve got state and federal governments very focused on the value that pharmacists can deliver to the health system in a way like we’ve never had before, and a willingness to remove some of those barriers to top of scope practice.

“So I think for us, it’s been a year of really driving that conversation forward and advocating for the kinds of practices that we know we can deliver in a range of care settings that make the best use of our expertise.”

Podcast highlights:

00.58: Why was the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia’s identity changed to Advanced Pharmacy Australia?

04.11: ‘A spectrum of responses’ – how members reacted

06.46: What are AdPha’s goals – and do they differ from SHPA’s?

10.30: What pharmacists don’t know about AdPha

13.39: What does the future look like?

14.37: The challenges and successes of 2024 – ‘It’s been an interesting year’

21.41: A look at 2025

23.22: Kate O’Hara reports on the FIP conference in Cape Town

You can access the full transcript of this podcast here. While we endeavour to ensure all important words and phrases are correct, please note there may be some minor inaccuracies in the transcription.

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