Thank you, Fei for that welcome and introduction.
I want to acknowledge that we're meeting on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my respects to their Elders, past and present.
This is the third PSA Conference that I have had the privilege to attend, as Health Minister.
It’s the only peak body annual conference I’ve attended every year I’ve been Health Minister.
Before my first conference in 2022, Fei and I met for the first time. We were both newly elected to our respective roles and keen to understand how we can work together to strengthen the pharmacy profession on behalf of the patients you serve.
At that meeting, one of the things we discussed were the opportunities to better embed the services of pharmacists in aged care.
This was a priority for Fei and for the PSA.
And it is a testament to Fei’s leadership, as well as the growing strength of this organisation, that just two short years later, we have already been able to work together to deliver significant reform in this area.
When I stood before you last year, I said that we, as a Government, need to be listening to all pharmacists across all settings, as well as pharmacy owners.
The PSA represents every one of Australia’s 38,000 pharmacists, no matter where they work.
You are the steward of your profession, just as pharmacists are the stewards of medicine use.
And this year, we have been able to deliver two major leaps forward to realise our shared aim to bring pharmacy and aged care closer together.
The work of pharmacists in aged care is so critical.
It is something that I saw when I was last in the Health Portfolio, as Minister for Aged Care under Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
It was then that we came to glimpse the extent of the problem of polypharmacy in aged care - of patients given a prescription that was intended to be short-lived, and yet was not reviewed and certainly not de-prescribed.
At a roundtable that I convened, one of Australia's leading geriatricians told me he had come across a resident in aged care who was on 43 different medicines.
43!
None of them had been reviewed. They just kept accreting and accreting and accreting.
This is just so costly.
Costly for the patient.
Costly for their health, from the interactions, side effects and adverse events.
And costly for the system, as those adverse events risk a cascade of interventions.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
Getting the design of the Aged Care On-Site Pharmacist measure right took some time, and I’d like to thank Fei and the PSA team for their advocacy and advice on the development of the measure.
This program really is the brainchild of the PSA, after all.
The program provides up to $138,000 a year for a full-time equivalent pharmacist on-site in a residential aged care home, to review medications regularly and provide advice on medicine prescribing and interactions.
The $333 million program launched at the start of last month and is already seeing registrations for on-site pharmacists.
This program builds on other ways we are linking pharmacy and aged care together, like expanding the NIPVIP program to fund pharmacists to administer free vaccines on the National Immunisation Program, not just in pharmacies, but on site in residential aged care and disability homes, as well.
This of course follows on from the changes on 1 January this year to expand the NIP to pharmacists, and have pharmacists finally paid the same rate that a doctor gets to administer a vaccine.
Almost 3,800 pharmacies have administered NIP vaccines this year, and 4,000 have registered to do so.
Of the eight million flu shots administered this flu season, more than 1 in 4 were administered by a pharmacist.
Pharmacists have also been busy administering the enormously popular new shingles vaccine, Shingrix.
The NIP is an uncapped program that will grow over time, as more vaccines are added, our population grows, and more Australians demand the lifesaving protection that a vaccine can give them.
When it comes to combatting the public health menace that is recreational vaping, I want to thank the PSA for offering to engage with the Government in good faith on the creation of guidelines for your profession, to help pharmacists have those conversations with patients who come in, seeking advice on how to quit smoking and nicotine.
As trusted health professionals, pharmacists are absolutely the right people to be having those conversations with people.
Because the fact is, you have already been having those conversations for years.
In the past five years, pharmacists have had conversations and given brief advice to at least one million Australians who have walked into a pharmacy, seeking help to quit nicotine dependence from smoking through various nicotine replacement therapies.
In line with PSA guidelines, when each of those people walked into a pharmacy and said "I want to quit smoking, what are my options?" that pharmacist will have had a brief conversation with that person and provided them with the advice that they needed.
From 1 October, your members will continue to do just that, when people walk in seeking help to quit smoking through vaping.
I know that pharmacists everywhere will be guided in those conversations by the updated nicotine cessation clinical guidelines and e-learning modules that the PSA is already working to develop.
And today I can announce that the Government will provide an additional $1.39 million to the PSA, so that it can provide workshops, webinars and other education and training activities to support pharmacists in the lead up to the 1 October changes.
Every year, the Bureau of Statistics tells us that around a million Australians go without a medicine that their doctor has told them is critical to their health, because they can't afford it.
In pharmacies right around the country, chronically ill patients are turning up at your dispensing counters, with 5 or 6 scripts, asking you and your members which of those scripts they might safely forego that month.
That puts any pharmacist in an incredibly difficult position - one where you are being enlisted to ration care, instead of provide it.
Which is why making medicines cheaper has been such a key part of the Albanese Government’s agenda to strengthen Medicare: it’s good for a patient’s hip pocket – which is particularly important during this global cost of living crunch – but it’s also good for their health.
Since coming to government, we have delivered several waves of cheaper medicines.
In July 2022, we slashed the maximum annual cost of medicines by up to 25% for close to 2 million Australian pensioners and concession cardholders.
In January last year, we delivered the largest cut to the maximum copayment in the 75-year history of the PBS, reducing the copayment from $42.50 to $30.
That measure alone has already saved almost 5 million Australians $400 million. Those savings will continue to grow, by around $25 million each month.
In September last year, we began to rollout our landmark reforms to allow 6 million Australians with an ongoing health condition to save time and money with a 60-day prescription.
Almost 200 medicines are available for the 60-day option, with the third batch of around a hundred medicines becoming available on 1 September.
And in the Budget in May, we announced we would keep medicines cheaper, by freezing the PBS co-payment at $31.60 until the end of next year for everyone with a Medicare card and no concession card.
The copayment for pensioners and other concession cardholders will stay at $7.70 for five years, instead of rising with inflation each year.
This alone is estimated to save Australians almost half a billion dollars, on top of all the other cheaper medicines savings we have already delivered and will continue to deliver.
We’ve also rolled out cheaper medicines policies that improve the health and hip pocket of vulnerable groups.
Like the nationally consistent opioid dependency treatment program that we launched on 1 July last year, finally giving thousands of Australians access to those vital medicines at PBS prices – something that was long, long overdue..
In just the first year, 630,000 prescriptions have been dispensed.
In the past few months, an average of 40,000 patients were accessing these medicines regularly, saving up to $200 each month.
Think about how much $200 means to someone on income support.
Because four out of five Australians receiving treatment for opioid dependency are on income support.
And in the May Budget, we funded an expansion of the Closing the Gap PBS co-payment program, to cover all PBS medicines, no matter where they’re dispensed.
We also announced a $26 million investment to further our goal to eliminate HIV transmission by 2030, by providing subsidised access to PrEP for people living in Australia who aren’t eligible for Medicare.
Good for the health and hip pocket of patients, and good for the health of the nation.
Today we mark the launch of the PSA’s "Pharmacists in 2030" report – a successor document to the "Pharmacists in 2023" report.
As the 2030 report notes, much of the vision of 2023 has been realised.
This is a credit to the work of the PSA and the advocacy of the sector.
The Albanese Government has been proud to play its part in partnering with your profession and with the PSA in realising that vision.
Whether it be through expanding the role that pharmacists play in vaccinations, to working on-site in aged care to improve medication management, to boosting funding for general practice to expand their health teams, including with non-dispensing pharmacists.
Success in achieving progress has seen the PSA develop a 2030 document that is bolder and broader in its ambitions than its predecessor.
Where 2023 had three areas of focus, 2030 has eleven.
Everything from improving access to care to data intelligence, environmental sustainability to pharmacist wellbeing.
And so you should be more ambitious, because the coming period will see more change, not less for Australia’s pharmacists.
As we look for ways to support Australia's pharmacists to provide more services, to more Australians, in more ways than you do now - we also need to ensure that we aren't just asking pharmacists to do more with less.
In October, I expect to receive Professor Mark Cormack’s independent Scope of Practice review.
At a time when our population is ageing and demand for good quality health care is rising - it doesn't make sense not to have every single health care worker working to the fullest extent of their skills and their training.
And for too long in Australia, there have been these glass ceilings put on individual professions, territorial jealousies fought with loud voices and sharp elbows.
Doctors not wanting nurses to work in an area, doctors not wanting pharmacists to do certain functions, specialists wanting to limit the scope of GPs.
We've got to bust through that old fashioned thinking.
As a country, we invest a lot of money in training hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals.
To get the fullest return from that taxpayer investment and, frankly, to ensure you get the fullest enjoyment and fulfilment from your career, you should be able to use every ounce, every skerrick of your skills, training and experience that you accrue as healthcare professionals.
Make no mistake, this is a time of great change in the health system.
As a government, we are strengthening Medicare and modernising it to better meet the needs of patients today, with an ageing population and rising rates of chronic disease.
And with times of great change, comes challenge.
Your organisation and your members will be asked to work in new ways and build new relationships as you provide new services to patients.
Some services may be ones that you have long advocated for … while others may be things you once argued against.
I urge you to rise to the challenge and lean into the change, because that is what patients need us all to do – practitioners, politicians, and peak bodies alike.
Because while there is challenge in change, there is also opportunity.
The PSA will be absolutely essential to the task of working through the issues like the scope of practice review.
We will continue to work closely with the PSA as the peak professional body representing pharmacists in Australia, regardless of where they practice.
We have already negotiated a new agreement between the Government and the PSA. Our first standalone agreement of its type.
I’ve been open in saying that we need to do more to broaden the voices in pharmacy policy, particularly at the strategic level.
I look forward to working with PSA, SHPA, Professional Pharmacists Australia and the Pharmacy Guild, alongside consumer health advocates and patients, to develop a more comprehensive strategic policy approach to the long-term challenges facing the sector.
As the stewards of your profession, I see the PSA playing a leading role in the development of future pharmacy programs, so that your members can deliver more services, to more Australians, in more ways than they do now.
But being a partner in reform means being prepared to stand up for the difficult reforms.
Particularly when those difficult reforms have noisy opponents.
60-day prescriptions was difficult reform, and good policy.
It was always good policy.
It is good for the hip pocket and good for the health of 6 million Australians with an ongoing health condition.
It strengthens Medicare for the needs and patient profile of modern Australia.
And because it was good policy, it had the support of every single major public health group, other than the Guild and the PSA. Importantly it had the support of every significant patient and consumer group.
When I stood before you at last year's conference, I dedicated much of my speech to 60-day prescriptions, in the lead up to the 1 September start date.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, we can reflect that the reform has delivered real benefits for patients, without causing any of the litany of catastrophic consequences that were attributed to it.
Close to nine million prescriptions have been issued for 60 days, saving Australians more than $50 million on their medicine costs.
And the number of applications I receive to open new pharmacies continues to climb.
Since I announced 60 day scripts, the government has received 124 applications to open new pharmacies, 25% more than the year before.
Events like these – or the negotiation of new agreements – are pretty straightforward in an environment where not much else is happening.
But we’re not going to see that environment again for a long time.
There is much to do to strengthen and modernise one of the world’s best healthcare systems to ensure it meets the needs of Australians for the next 40 years – as Medicare has done for the past 40.
Change is rarely easy – it can challenge vested interests and take us outside our comfort zone.
But there is a huge opportunity as well in the years ahead for pharmacists.
So we might not always agree on everything but I hope we can continue to work constructively and maturely together – as we’ve largely been able to do over the past two years.
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