Australia's peak pharmacy bodies have united behind a shared vision for the future of pharmacist prescribing—one that places patients at the centre of care, strengthens access to medicines, and empowers pharmacists to practise to their full professional capability.
The Joint Pharmacy Organisations (JPOs)—comprising the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and Advanced Pharmacy Australia—today reaffirmed their strong support for a model of autonomous pharmacist prescribing within a self-determined, documented, and authorised scope of practice.
This model, developed collaboratively by the JPOs and grounded in international evidence and local success stories, represents a major step forward for accessible, patient-centred healthcare.
"This is about pharmacists taking responsibility for the care they are already safely delivering—under a nationally recognised, professionally governed framework," the JPOs said in a joint statement.
"The profession is ready. The community is ready. The system needs pharmacists to work to their full scope to meet growing healthcare demand."
Today's national forum on a pharmacist's endorsement for scheduled medicines held by the Pharmacy Board of Australia (APHRA) in Melbourne delivered a comprehensive discussion on how best to deliver an endorsement for autonomously prescribing pharmacists.
The Joint Pharmacy Organisations' (JPOs) submission to the Pharmacy Board of Australia, released earlier this week, sets the benchmark and industry wide position. It proposes that pharmacists, upon completion of an Australian Pharmacy Council–accredited prescribing qualification, be endorsed to autonomously prescribe Schedule 2, 3, 4 and 8 medicines within their professional scope.
This would bring Australia into line with international practice in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and the US, where pharmacist prescribing has been implemented for nearly two decades and has consistently delivered measurable benefits in safety, quality, efficiency, and patient access.
Extensive Australian evidence confirms that pharmacist prescribing is safe, effective, and highly valued by patients. Independent evaluations of Queensland and Victorian pilots reported no safety concerns, while pharmacists delivered tens of thousands of timely consultations that would otherwise have placed further pressure on GPs and emergency departments.
Major themes from the forum, included consensus on a range of topics;
- Embedding prescribing competencies in the base registrable degree for Pharmacists
- Ensuring a patients PBS subsidy is applied to medicines prescribed by a Pharmacist
- Enhancing existing cultural competencies across all training standards
- Delivering an autonomous prescribing model within a self-defined scope of practice and
- Elevating knowledge of the existing training and competency standards of pharmacists, in their role as highly training primary health care professionals.
While the Pharmacy Board of Australia considers its path forward, the JPOs have urged the Board to deliver a profession-led, outcome-focused model that prioritises access, safety and consistency.
Australia patients cannot afford more fragmentation or delay in their healthcare system.
The Pharmacy Board's role is to ensure public protection—not to impose unnecessary regulatory barriers that prevent pharmacists from practicing to their top of scope. The JPO model achieves both safety and access through nationally accredited education, robust governance and professional accountability.
The JPOs' model embeds collaborative practice with other health professionals, ensures training standards are nationally accredited, and enables pharmacists to prescribe within their self-defined, evidence-based scope of practice—consistent with the National Prescribing Competency Framework.
With Australia facing chronic shortages of general practitioners and increased pressure on the primary care system, pharmacist prescribers are a proven and practical solution.
Independent modelling by EY shows that expanded pharmacist prescribing could deliver annual savings of more than $600 million to governments, while significantly improving access for patients—particularly in rural and regional communities.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Professor Trent Twomey, said the time for talk is over and that the profession will move forward together to deliver for patients.
"Pharmacists have proven, time and again, that we deliver safe, effective, and patient-centred care. Every independent review—from the Scope of Practice Review to multiple state pilots—confirms that the barriers are no longer about capability, but regulation," Professor Twomey said.
"The Joint Pharmacy Organisations have provided a clear, evidence-based roadmap for autonomous prescribing within a pharmacist's self-defined scope of practice. This is not theoretical—it's practical, it's safe, and it's what patients deserve.
"The Guild stands firmly with our colleagues across the profession. We call on the Pharmacy Board and Health Ministers to adopt a nationally consistent, profession-led model that enables pharmacists to prescribe autonomously, collaborate effectively, and deliver care wherever patients need us most."
