Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:42): I am very pleased to rise to contribute to the debate today in support of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Authorising Pharmacists) Bill 2023. I wish to thank the Minister for Health, her minister’s office and the Department of Health public servants who worked so hard to bring this bill to the house.

I welcome the proposed changes and believe that they will have a positive impact and provide positive outcomes for health consumers across Victoria, particularly in regional and rural Victoria. Once again the opposition have shown their true colours – that they are only interested in being a barrier to progress and better care for our communities – and it is a real shame. I welcome that the Greens are supporting this, understanding the benefits that it will provide to so many health consumers.

I am pleased to follow on from a number of contributions, particularly that of the member for Northcote. It was an outstanding contribution. Like me she is the daughter of a pharmacist, so we know firsthand the important roles that pharmacists play in our society and probably spent far too much of our childhoods at the pharmacy rather than at home. So I am a big fan of pharmacists, and that is why I am very, very keen to talk today. I really hope that Backroom Baz tuned in for Narracan’s contribution today – truly quotable and worthy of mention in Sunday’s edition. If you missed out on Narracan’s contribution, as Molly Meldrum would say, ‘Do yourself a favour’ and have a read of that. It was magnificent.

Last year our government committed to setting up a pilot program to trial the provision of more accessible and timely treatments for common health conditions by pharmacists. I welcome the changes proposed in the bill, because this bill recognises the importance of integrated health care and respects the professionalism of pharmacists as important healthcare providers in our community. Today we are considering the legislative amendments that will allow the design and implementation of this program in a manner which is safe, thorough and beneficial for all Victorians.

At the heart of this amendment is the community pharmacists statewide pilot. What that will deliver is really significant, because it is accessible and affordable care as well as high-quality care. Under the pilot community pharmacists will be able to treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections – UTIs – and mild skin conditions and to reissue oral contraceptives.

I am particularly pleased about the improvements this will provide to Victorian women, especially those living in the regions and in rural areas, as the proposed changes will mean increased access to timely care for the discomfort of painful UTIs and increased access to the contraception pill. Additionally, further training will be available to pharmacists within the pilot program to provide a wide array of vaccinations, including select travel immunisations. I know this will be welcomed by travellers and holiday-makers as a convenient alternative to accessing a doctor’s appointment, which can take some time to get and are becoming increasingly expensive.

The budget that was just handed down last month, the 2023–24 Victorian budget, has allocated almost $20 million towards this pilot, which will make it more straightforward and more cost effective to get health care closer to home. We know that the closer you are to healthcare provision, the better outcomes you are going to get. As someone living in the regions, that is really, really important to me.

It will not only improve access to primary health care in our communities to benefit everyday Victorians – and as I have said, women in particular – but it will also ease the pressure on our hospitals and our GP clinics, especially in western Victoria, where I come from. A particular emphasis will be placed on ensuring rural and regional community pharmacies opt in to the pilot. The pilot’s overall design will benefit from expert guidance on safety and efficiency from the clinical reference group of experienced clinicians, pharmacists, safety experts and educators as well as strategic operational advice from the pilot advisory group.

We are also looking to learn from other Australian jurisdictions trialling similar schemes, including what they have done in New South Wales. What they have done there is implement a year-long clinical trial with pharmacists dispensing medications for uncomplicated UTIs as well as resupplying oral contraceptives – so, very similar to what we are going to achieve through this pilot program. Following a successful pilot in Queensland, pharmacists are now permanently permitted to supply treatment for uncomplicated UTIs. Both programs, like the proposed Victorian pilot, revolve around structured prescribing, where pharmacists may dispense treatments for identified conditions following established protocols.

Both of those models, however – in New South Wales and Queensland – involve greater costs to the consumer, whereas our model in Victoria, the Victorian pilot, provides funding towards the consultation as well as subsidies for applicable medications so that the medication cost to pharmacies and patients will be the same as under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the PBS. We are focused on making treatments more accessible without making them any less affordable, so patients will not pay more than they would have if they had visited a bulk-billing GP, and that is great news for health consumers.

But we know – from my experience and the experience of my family and friends – that getting a bulk-billed GP appointment in a timely manner is getting harder and harder, if not impossible for some Victorians, once again particularly in rural and regional Victoria. A comprehensive evaluation following the 12-month pilot will include a cost-benefit analysis as well as assessing improvements to primary healthcare accessibility and benefits to broaden our health system. In doing so, we are ensuring that we get it right and that the service is meeting the expectations of community members and is workable for pharmacists and pharmacy workers, which is so important.

We know the role of a pharmacist is important, and as I said earlier, I particularly know, because pharmacists are experts in medicine who have completed a minimum five years of study to become a registered pharmacist in Australia.

To be a qualified pharmacist you need to have a comprehensive understanding of how the human body works and ensure that the introduction of medicines does not have a detrimental impact on the overall health and wellbeing of a patient. The role of a pharmacist is not only to dispense medicines but, more importantly, to play a vital role in providing advice to the community and improving the health outcomes of communities. This has been the case for centuries. Within the healthcare system pharmacists are the medicine experts, and that is why this bill is so important, because at its heart this bill is about dispensing medicine and making sure that people have access to medicines. So why not let the experts do it?

Pharmacists and pharmacies play an important role, particularly in regional centres. I should know, as I said, because my dad ran a pharmacy in Ballarat that was open 9 until 9 every day of the year. Dad spent more waking hours at the pharmacy than he did at home. He often had to leave us on Christmas Day to go and work a shift at the pharmacy, because he never closed the doors on our community. Dad’s pharmacy provided an essential healthcare service to the Ballarat community. Before supermarkets and petrol stations stayed open late, Dad’s pharmacy was the only place in Ballarat where you could get a Panadol, a Lucozade, cough mixture, Dettol, baby formula, bandaids and bandages after hours. Pharmacists are highly respected health professionals who play a vital role in the provision of health care in the community, and this pilot will enable them to do more.

The bill before us today proposes amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 that will allow for the establishment of the community pharmacist statewide pilot. I am running out of time. I have so much to talk about, but I just really want to say that this legislation provides grounds for regulating the supply, dispensing, administering, use and sale of schedule 4 poisons under specific circumstances without a prescription by a pharmacist, but there are a whole lot of different checks and balances.

In concluding I would really like to thank the pharmacists and the pharmacy staff who work in my electorate, including at UFS, Eureka pharmacy, Crawford’s, Priceline, the pharmacists at Grampians Health and those at Amcal at Wendouree and Chemist Warehouse. Thank you for the work that you do in making my community healthier and the support you provide those living with disease, pain and injury.

The work pharmacists do changes people’s lives for the better, and the care they provide improves the quality of life and wellbeing of all consumers. I welcome the introduction of this bill, and I commend this bill to the house.

You can take a look at more of my speeches to Parliament here.