Pharmacy health regulation at work: Protecting the public in 2017/18

14 Feb 2019

A profession-specific annual report summary that looks into the work of the Pharmacy Board of Australia over the year to 30 June 2018 has now been published.

The report draws on data from the 2017/18 annual report by AHPRA and the National Boards. This information provides a snapshot of the profession as at 30 June 2018, and includes the number of applications for registration, outcomes of practitioner audits and segmentation of the registrant base by gender, age and principal place of practice.

Notifications information includes the number of complaints or concerns received, matters opened and closed during the year, types of complaint, monitoring and compliance and matters involving immediate action.

Insights into the profession include:

• 31,108 pharmacists were registered in 2017/18.
• 3,333 new applications for registration were received.
• Pharmacists make up 4.4% of all registered health practitioners in Australia.
• The number of pharmacists increased by 2.5% from 2016/17.
• 62.4% pharmacists are women; 37.6% are men.
• New South Wales (NSW) was the principal place of practice for most pharmacists (9,443).
• Northern Territory (NT) was home to the smallest number (253).
• The age bracket with the largest number of pharmacists was 30–34 (6,409).
• 1,581 pharmacists were under 25 years of age.
• 161 were aged 80 or over.
• 451 notifications (complaints or concerns) were lodged with AHPRA about pharmacists.
• AHPRA closed 411 notifications about pharmacists in 2017/18.
• 172 cases were being monitored by AHPRA for compliance with restrictions on their registration.
• Immediate action was considered by the Board on 17 matters relating to pharmacists in 2017/18 and taken 15 times.
• 19 complaints were made about possible statutory offences by pharmacists during the year; 22 were closed. Over half of the new matters related to title protection; 8 related to advertising breaches.

To download this report, or to view the main 2017/18 annual report for AHPRA and the National Boards, visit the AHPRA website.

In January and February 2019, AHPRA and the National Boards are publishing summaries that break down 2017/18 data for 13 other Boards in the National Scheme.

For more information

• Visit the AHPRA website
• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200