From our Chair

The last 18 months have been incredibly challenging for the pharmacy profession, for our academic colleagues and for our students. The APC has continued to engage with the profession and education providers throughout the pandemic to provide support and advice. Our standards have enabled education providers to be flexible in the delivery of their programs while maintaining the quality of their graduates. We supported the pharmacy profession in their endeavours to contribute to the COVID-vaccination rollout through the application of our vaccination standards. Community and hospital pharmacists and pharmacies have continued to operate at the front-line throughout the pandemic and have shown themselves to be adaptable in the face of considerable challenges, despite the risk to their physical health and wellbeing.

I am proud to be part of this profession and am confident that the APC will continue to offer support where we can.

We have had a number of changes to the composition of the Board over this year. Professor Iqbal Ramzan, Gayle Ginnane and Leanne Wells left the Board, and we welcomed Associate Professor Kirstie Galbraith, Abbas Alibhai and Helen Spiteri as new Board members. I would like to thank Iqbal, Gayle and Leanne for their considerable contribution to our organisation as Board members and wish them well in their future endeavours.

Despite the pandemic, the APC has continued to lead on innovations in accreditation and examinations. We continue to work in collaboration with the Pharmacy Board of Australia on intern assessments; it was this work that facilitated rapid transition to flexible adaptation to the conduct of the Intern Written exam in 2020. Through the year, our team has developed a suite of workplace assessment tools for interns and preceptors which will now be piloted across Australia. This work has been overseen by an expert working group, and I thank the members of this group for their contribution.

Accreditation activities have been adapted due to travel restrictions and states in lockdown. Our Site Evaluation Teams (SETs) and the APC staff have shown themselves to be adaptable and resilient throughout this period, which has enabled business continuity and continued quality assurance of Australia’s programs of study.

The APC staff, under the executive leadership of our CEO Bronwyn Clark, have continued to operate and innovate throughout the year, despite spending many months working from home. They have continued to connect and support each other through virtual activities and meetings. I thank Bronwyn and the APC executive and staff for their commitment to the work of the APC throughout these difficult times.

The APC has made significant progress in the work we are doing, under the leadership of Associate Professor Faye McMillan AM and our CEO Bronwyn Clark, supported by the Indigenous Health Strategy Group (IHSG) to improve cultural safety in pharmacy. Improving cultural safety is a high priority for the APC, and this work has led to the development of a number of podcasts and webinars and will be the subject of the 2021 Lloyd Sansom Lecture. I would like to thank Faye, Bronwyn and the IHSG for their leadership in this area.

As this financial year closes, our CEO Bronwyn Clark is stepping down from her role as Chair of the Health Professions Accreditation Councils (HPAC) Forum after two terms of leadership. Her contribution to the work of this group through a challenging period, in which we have seen a number of reviews and changes to the accreditation environment, has been significant. On behalf of the Board, I would like to acknowledge and thank Bronwyn for her considerable contribution to the work of the HPAC Forum.

Looking forward, there will be some changes to the Executive team at the APC with Executive Director Corporate Services, Gabrielle Sutton, resigning and Executive Officer, Jeanne Edwards retiring. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Jeanne and Gabrielle for their contribution to the APC and support for the APC Board.

Finally, I would like to thank the many, many people who contribute to the work of the APC. Our many stakeholders, collaborators, SET members, examination question developers and our colleagues across the Health Professions Councils and Registration Boards and Ahpra who willingly give their time to work with us make our work possible. A special thanks to my fellow Board members for providing support and governance for the organisation.