Speaking during Advanced Pharmacy Australia’s Medicines Management 2025 conference in Melbourne, the three spoke about how residencies can help pharmacists keep getting feedback through their early careers, medicines reconciliation and points of transition, as well as the greater role pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can play in the healthcare system.

Simpson explained that “transitions of care is not a problem we have solved in Australia by any measure”.

“We did some great work obviously this year partnering with the condition on the practise standards around transitions of care, but we’re also looking at how we expand those collaborative prescribing models at the point of discharge,” he said.

“We know discharge summaries and discharge medication lists have a high rate of inaccuracy and there’s hospitals that are already implementing collaborative prescribing models at that point and seeing dramatic reductions, so patients out the door hours quicker with the right medicines.

“Our challenge there is that until we have PBS prescribing rights for pharmacists, all the pharmacists can do is write a prescription and ask the doctor to sign it, and that means that you’re still effectively wasting a lot of time because it’s not a value add activity at that step.

“If they’ve already agreed the treatment plan, then adding a signature to a page doesn’t add value, but it just takes time.”

O’Hara, who has been closely involved in the collaborative prescribing trial in NSW, said that it had been “really exciting this year to see advocacy really pay off”.

NSW and WA “are getting collaborative prescribing over the line” in terms of legislation change, she said.

“So getting that, working with all of the states to get that through has been a really massive achievement. And in New South Wales, those legislation changes are now fixed in the legislation and they’ve acknowledged that partnered pharmacists prescribing or charting is really key to getting people through the emergency rooms faster and getting those medicines right quicker.

“So that’s been a really significant piece of advocacy work that has really paid off for both the profession and for our patients in that space.

“So we continue to really advocate for and encourage for pharmacists prescribing to be done in that collaborative way as part of getting pharmacists embedded in multidisciplinary teams to focus on the medicines and give everybody else the time to do what they do best.”

01:20 – How have the new practise recognition pathways evolved through 2025?

04:20 – The value of the independent pathway

05:38 – Advancements in empowering pharmacy technicians and assistants

08:09 – The launch of AdPha’s clinical standards

09:33 – How can these changes be scaled nationally to free up pharmacists for higher level clinical duties?

11:42 – The difference between a residency and an internship

16:50 – “Our transitions of care are some of the highest risk points in any patient’s journey.”

20:46 – The NSW collaborative prescribing trial

21:52 – “1.3 billion of wasted expenditure in hospitals”

22:58 – Gaps and loopholes in transitions of care

25:09 – The impact of MedsAware Deprescribing Week

27:23 – How is the integration of electronic prescribing and electronic medical records fundamentally changing the clinical workflow of hospital pharmacists and what digital competencies are now essential for new graduates?

28:38 – “I expect to see digital competencies start to be built into our university degrees.”

32:00 – How is AdPha working with regulatory bodies and health services formally recognised the credential specialist, clinical pharmacists, and to ensure the remuneration and role expansion?

35:05 – “We’ve seen employers as well now asking for ANZCAP recognition as part of applications for jobs.”

36:24 – The gap in seven-day clinical pharmacy services

39:25 – Recruitment, retention and burnout

43:25 – Why are there more vacancies?

44:25 – “One nice trend I’m seeing these days is that there is much more of a portability in the profession.”

46:33 – Hopes and goals for 2026

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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