The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Victoria

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is the national peak body representing community pharmacy. It seeks to serve the interests of its members and to support community pharmacy in its role delivering quality health outcomes for all Australians. The Guild was established in 1928, bringing together several small retail pharmacy organisations then operating in the various States. The Guild is registered under the federal Fair Work Act (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 as an employers' organisation. The Guild is committed to supporting and maintaining the community pharmacy model as the most appropriate and efficient system of delivering medicines, medication management and related services to the Australian public. The 5000 community pharmacies across Australia dispense around 250 million prescriptions annually. The vast majority of the prescriptions dispensed under the Federal Government’s subsidised Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) are available at the same price for all Australians wherever they live. This is a triumph of equity and access, which the Guild works hard to maintain. A major Guild activity at all levels is close liaison and negotiation with governments, manufacturers, wholesalers and other organisations in or around the health care delivery system.