News

Despite Workforce Woes, Pharmacy Grows

The number of registered pharmacists in Australia continues to rise, Board data shows. Pharmacists and other industry stakeholders recently told the AJP that pharmacists are “leaving the profession in droves”.  But new data show a longer-term increase in pharmacist numbers, followed by a shorter-term decrease. 

The Pharmacy Board of Australia has released its quarterly registration data, covering the reporting period of 1 January 2017 to 31 March 2017. The number of registered pharmacists now totals 30,287, comprising 27,384 pharmacists with general registration; 1,809 with provisional registration; 1,088 non-practising; and six pharmacists with limited registration. This total has increased by 570 since 30 June 2016, at which point 29,717 pharmacists were registered in Australia. This itself was up from 29,014 at 30 June 2015.

However, the increase demonstrates a trend of slow growth over a one-year period. Compared to December 2016 data, numbers had actually dropped a little, by 81 pharmacists, to a total of 30,368. The largest age demographic in pharmacy was those aged between 25 and 35: there are currently 6,201 pharmacists aged 25-29, and 6,008 aged between 30 and 34. 121 valiant pharmacists are still registered at age 80-plus.

Pharmacy continues to experience an increase in female registrants: 61.8% of pharmacists are now female, and 38.2% male. This is little changed from the December 2016 data, which showed 61.6% female pharmacists and 38.4% male.

Source: ajp.com.au/news/despite-workforce-woes-pharmacy-grows/?utm_source=AJP+Daily&utm_campaign=893ce5805d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cce9c58212-893ce5805d-109985429#disqus_thread, viewed 19 July 2017