The AJP Podcast

“When I first joined community pharmacy, I also asked myself, ‘Is it possible to maintain professionalism while ensuring the pharmacy remains sustainable?’ Ng says.

“And my answer is now yes, it is entirely possible. So one of the examples is our vitamin D screening service.

“At the beginning, we assumed the service had to be free, otherwise people would not come and they would think we have other intentions.

“We also assumed that the public in Malaysia may not be willing to pay for a pharmacist-led service, but we were wrong.

“Even when the service was offered at its original price of 35 ringgit [AUD$12.28], people are willing to pay and they’re interested to know about their health.

“So I believe they were not paying only for the test itself, but they’re also paying for the interpretation, the pharmacist recommendation, the personalised vitamin D dosing advice, and the confidence that someone is helping them to understand what to do next.”

00:59 – About the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)’s early career pharmaceutical group

02:42 – “I think one of the biggest challenge that early career professionals are facing now is about identity”

04:01 – Advancing pharmacist-led care programs on an international scale

05:36 – Some of Ng’s favourite initiatives

07:48 – The future – and the “Odyssey years”

09:43 – Connecting with global pharmacy bodies

11:22 – A typical day for Ng

13:24 – “In Malaysia, I think one of the biggest opportunities for pharmacist-led care is preventive care”

15:14 – “I think the biggest frustration is recognition”

18:14 – Learnings in financial sustainability

20:01 – How the perception of pharmacists in Malaysia has shifted

21:54 – The most important change the profession could make – and a sad story about a patient Ng wanted to help

25:33 – “I think pharmacist led care programs need to evolve from a standalone pharmacy services into a more integrated primary care pathways”

27:46 – How Ng advocated for unwanted medicines disposal

29:52 – “I think the one piece of advice I would give to early career self or the early career pharmacists around me is to not be afraid of uncertainty and change”

31:13 – Getting involved with FIP

32:29 – What’s next for Ng

33:34 – Stay curious!

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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Consultant Pharmacist of the Year Kelly Abbott has told AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh that caps on the Home Medicines Review (HMR) program are “disincentivising things” 

Based in one of Australia’s most unhealthy regions, Gippsland, Abbott called on politicians to spend some time with her to see the challenges the current policy creates.  

” Last month, 59 referrals from GPs arrived in my inbox,” she said. 

“I desperately would love to see all of those people, and I have got the time. I work so many other roles to fill my time. Why can’t I turn that time into these positive outcomes, reduce the hospitalisations for these people, focus on making us Australia’s second, then third, then fourth, then one day if I’m magical, least unhealthy area?  

“I don’t think I’ll ever get there, but I would love to be able to make a difference, and I’m stifled right now because the suggestion is that we can make patients pay for a home medication review. 

“Sure, some of them can afford it, but some of my regions are just so socioeconomically disadvantaged – this is not a priority for them,” Abbott said. 

“Our food banks are struggling to keep up with the demand. We’re seeing increased crime because they can’t afford things in our local area.  

“We need to fund things like this to help them afford their medicines, use the right medicines, and stay out of hospital to get them back into employment if we can. This is so important, this service. We’re not asking for much. We’re asking for reality to be brought into policy.” 

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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AJP Podcast host, Carlene McMaugh, discusses life as a rural pharmacist with Charles Darwin University’s pharmacy lead, Associate Professor Heather Volks.  

Logistical challenges are hindering pharmacists working in rural and remote areas from sharing their experiences with the profession’s peak bodies, Volks says.  

“We… as the profession, we haven’t allowed rural pharmacy to grow,” she said.  

“And I think a lot of that is because our lobbying bodies, our policymakers don’t have active participating rural pharmacists on committees… these people can’t take an hour out of their pharmacy day to join a teleconference. 

“If they want to go to a face-to-face meeting, they can’t logistically get there, and so to find someone that really understands rural pharmacy at the table at a high level meeting is nearly impossible.  

“And so we’re not getting a true representation of what people on the ground know they need – that voice is not getting through to people that can actually make a difference.” 

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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AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh discusses key skills pharmacists will need going into the future, their role in palliative care and more, with the 2026 Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Pharmacist of the Year, Paul Tait.  

With more than three decades of experience across multiple settings, Tait, said he was humbled to be recognised by his peers, noting the “pharmacy has been an amazing driver… to understand big parts of the health system”.  

The South Australian clinician researcher noted that the profession has evolved over the years, providing new funded services including home medication reviews and playing a bigger role within multidisciplinary care teams.  

Looking to the future with the emergence of AI, Tait said that “critical thinking is an important skill to have” 

“I think that’s very important from where we are heading as a profession,” he told McMaugh.  

“I would argue that critical thinking element is something that we can bring to the table that will help to cement us in the healthcare ecosystem. 

“A good example is … [in] the research aspect of my role currently, I will look at the data and that data might be numbers of how many patients did a certain activity, or it might be words of what people’s thoughts and feelings are about an issue.  

“But actually, I think with critical thinking, what you do is you actually stop and you think about, well, what are the tensions in the system?” 

Other key topics include:  

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Wiradjuri woman, Faye McMillan, tells the AJP Podcast that she was inspired to pursue a career as a pharmacist after working at a dispensing assistant in her local pharmacy in Trangie, NSW.  

“[I] saw the contribution that the pharmacist made to the community, and the community held him in such high regard, in the sense of relationally regarded,” she said.  

“It really gave me a sense of ‘in service’, and what it meant to be in service with your community… that’s why I wanted to do it – I wanted to be in service, I wanted to – at the time – go back home after studying and be the local pharmacists, which didn’t happen.” 

Reflecting on becoming the first pharmacist of Aboriginal heritage, McMillan said “when somebody gets to say that they were the first, there’s a lot of things that we don’t fully appreciate until the distance of time”.  

“So, to experience being the first, there was no safety net in the sense of who can I go to ask questions? What’s been the experience? How do we navigate this? Why aren’t we learning so more about indigenous peoples? Why aren’t we understanding the pharmacology of indigenous plants? Why aren’t we doing all these things?  

“It was so Western and biomedical that it was a struggle, but in hindsight, one that I think certainly crafted who I am, the relationship I have to the profession, and also the relationship I have to my family.” 

McMillan told the AJP Podcast that after completing her training she faced challenges in finding opportunities where she could be both an Indigenous person and a pharmacist.  

“There were doors that were open if I just wanted to be Aboriginal, or there were doors that opened if I just wanted to be pharmacist, but very few doors that opened that allowed me to be both, that allowed me to be who I was,” she said. 

An opportunity to embrace both side of her identity came when Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) chief executive, Bronwyn Clark, invited McMillan to work with the APC.  

“It was I think that moment of acceptance that I could be both an Aboriginal woman as well as a pharmacist, and I bring knowledge of both of those systems.  

“And so it started a relationship with APC that continues to this day.” 

While McMillan said she has found opportunities to be here authentic self, she noted that racism remains an issue in Australia.  

“You can’t be an Indigenous business owner and be successful because that doesn’t fit the stereotype of what being a business owner should look,” she said. 

“Or you only get to a position because you’re Black or because they pull the race card and we have quotas that organisations want to fill.  

“It’s not like I have done a master’s; I have done a doctoral qualification; I have postdoctoral qualifications. I am qualified to do the job as well as bringing that other unique set of diverse lens. 

“I think the challenge for us is understanding why we’re so afraid of difference and why we want to have conforming ideas.” 

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

Ahpra acting executive director of Health Regulation, Monica Lambley; PDL lead pharmacist education and professional development and host of the Be Risk Ready Podcast Amy Minion; and PDL Professional Officer and chair of the Victorian Local Advisory Committee Naomi Lim discuss how important it is to understand the notification process.

Minion says that “in this episode, we’ll break down what a regulatory notification is and what it isn’t,” as well as some common reasons why notifications are made – and tips for navigating the process.

And does a notification always mean that a pharmacist has made an error, or something has gone wrong? PDL takes an in-depth look…

02:36 – What is a notification?

03:29 – Statistics on notifications

04:24 – “The first struggle is almost always emotional.”

06:36 – What a notification doesn’t mean

07:26 – What regulators are looking for in their assessment of a notification

08:52 – “This is a learning.”

10:39 – When a pharmacist reaches out to PDL

12:35 – How do practitioners show accountability and insight?

13:49 – Looking after your own wellbeing

16:24 – Why notifications do not define a practitioner

18:12 – “A really high proportion of the information that we receive relates to a miscommunication or a misunderstanding.”

20:09 – Staying ahead of risk

22:47 – The importance of seeking information

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh chats with Natalie Willis, senior vice president of the Pharmacy Guild in WA, national councillor and chair of the Guild’s clinical governance committee, about the new Quality and Safety in Pharmacy Program (QSPP) framework.

There’s two major themes, says Willis: what’s changing, and how.

“What we’ve changed is around clinical governance and patient engagement,” she says.

“The how is around the way that we’ll be assessing the program going forward.”

01:00 – What’s actually changing?

03:47 – How can pharmacists prepare for the change?

05:11 – “The biggest challenges in making it happen were just going through the process in a different way.”

07:23 – What feedback has the Guild received?

08:34 – “Obviously there is some trepidation out there.”

09:01 – The most frequently asked questions

10:38 – A lower administrative burden

12:44 – A goal of reducing anxiety

15:01 – “Everything is still evolving and it’s designed not to be a static process.”

16:11 – Are dedicated compliance staff needed?

18:40 – What happens to pharmacies which aren’t ready?

21:18 – What the outcome should look like

23:23 – What does the community pharmacy of 2030 look like?

25:46 – What to do now

28:31 – How to know a QSPP assessment is coming

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

“Full scope is obviously super, super important and very exciting time for us here in Australia,” Clark says.

“So our role at the APC is to be the national accreditation and standard setting body for education and training for pharmacists.

“And so when we are looking at how we can support full scope, it’s really top of mind for us and we’re putting a lot of work and effort into collaborating with people to do this work.

“I think the key thing around the challenges with these programs has been around making sure that we have graduates who have the right level of competence and capability to be able to deliver full scope and prescribing regardless of where they are.”

01:40 – The biggest challenges in creating agile standards

04:50 – Will accreditation be applied nationally?

06:05 – “It will be a bit like optometry.”

11:10 – Harmonising the standards

15:46 – Could the traditional four-year plus internship model be replaced?

20:46 – Ensuring potential new programs are rigorous

23:21 – A new set of learning models for preceptors and supervisors

26:17 – Changes to the intern written exam

28:22 – “You’re actually assessing someone’s competence as opposed to their ability to remember.”

30:19 – The colloquium and its focus on respectful, inclusive conversations

34:41 – Changes to accreditation for CPD activities

37:35 – Does this shift create uncertainty?

39:19 – “The APC is very committed to this strategy of embedding cultural safety”

42:37 – The APC is nominated as a finalist in the leading tech awards in Australia

45:08 – The workforce crisis

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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Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

As the general manager of not-for-profit Wonthaggi Miners’ Pharmacy in regional Victoria, Sally Cairnduff runs her pharmacy a little bit differently. 

“Profit is not the goal in itself,” she tells AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh.

“Instead, we’re more interested in supporting our community and improving their health and wellbeing. So it’s a little bit different to other pharmacy models where all funds are either reinvested into the pharmacy to improve access and quality of care or donated to community initiatives.”

Cairnduff tells McMaugh how else the pharmacy supports locals and how she manages staff shortages in a regional community. 

Other highlights include:

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.

ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify 

This is the fourth in a four-part series hosted by the AJP’s Fiona Duke, about the many aspects of cough and its various treatment methods. Fiona is joined by with two guest specialists: pharmacist, educator and medical writer Dr Brett MacFarlane and community pharmacist, educator and writer Jala Moushi.

Episode 1: The cough journey

Episode 2: Helping patients choose cough products

Episode 3: Matching the product format to the cough patient profile

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.

ACCESS PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify