Rural and Indigenous Health

The Rural Pharmacist Australia (RPA) represents thousands of individual pharmacists and pharmacy owners who provide services in remote and rural Australia, as community pharmacists, pharmacists in training or pharmacy students. The membership in the NRHA assists the RPA to add pharmacy's voice to national rural health policy development and implementation.

The RPA is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of people in rural and remote Australia.  In the context of health reform and changing service delivery models, the RPA's goals are to work with the NRHA (and where appropriate consumers, other health professionals and government) to:

• represent rural pharmacy through a collaborative approach;
• establish and maintain membership of and actively engage with the NRHA ensuring a collective voice on issues of common interest;
• bring to the NRHA the rural, remote and indigenous health pharmacists’ perspectives including health access issues experienced by Australians living in rural and remote areas;
• address and provide direction on rural, remote and indigenous health policy issues and priority action areas relating to pharmacy at NRHA meetings; and
• consider and respond to matters arising from NRHA meetings.

The key messages of RPA include that:

1. Pharmacists are team-oriented medicines experts.  We are accessible and can provide health solutions.  We are here to help.  We are trusted by the community and we want to be part of your health care team.
2. As pressure grows on the health system we need to use all our resources in a smarter way – and that means a broader health service role for pharmacists.  With Australia's critical and growing healthcare issues, governments and health care providers cannot afford to underutilise pharmacists.
3. The RPA is the logical pharmacy representative group for NRHA (and government and policy makers) to be approached to achieve health reform and health solutions

For more information please contact admin@ruralpharmacists.org.au