Wed 24 June 2026
NSW Budget must deliver for hospital pharmacy workforce to unlock health gains
Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) has welcomed the Minns Government’s $10.3 billion investment in health infrastructure and commitment to grow the health workforce and expand hospital capacity as part of the 2026–27 NSW Budget.
AdPha President Assoc. Prof. Tom Simpson FANZCAP (Lead&Mgmt) said the commitment to recruit an additional 9,000 health workers was a positive step, but warned that hospital pharmacists must be a core part of the workforce expansion if the state is to meet growing patient demand safely and efficiently.
‘Pharmacists play a critical role in improving patient safety, reducing medication-related harm and supporting patient flow, particularly in emergency departments and critical care settings.
‘With this Budget expected to support an additional 33,000 emergency department presentations each year, NSW must ensure the entire healthcare workforce is adequately resourced to meet demand.
‘Despite having the largest hospital bed base in Australia, NSW has one of the lowest hospital pharmacist-to-bed ratios nationally. That imbalance is placing increasing pressure on services and limiting opportunities to improve patient outcomes.
‘NSW is one of the most populous states in the country, yet patients have some of the lowest levels of access to hospital pharmacists. That means reduced access to medication safety expertise, fewer supports for safe transitions of care and missed opportunities to prevent avoidable harm.
“Medicines are the most common healthcare intervention. Without pharmacists involved in patient care, we know medicines can be used inappropriately, wasted or, in some cases, cause harm.
‘Programs such as Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting (PPMC) are proven to improve patient safety, shorten hospital stays and free up valuable time for doctors and nurses.
‘However, these benefits cannot be fully realised without adequate pharmacist staffing to support and sustain these services. As AdPha’s State of Pharmacy: Workforce Insights report shows, 76% of NSW hospital respondents said NSW hospitals experienced reduced pharmacy services over a 12-month period due to workforce constraints.
‘The NSW Government has rightly committed to expanding hospital capacity, but capacity is about more than buildings and beds.
‘If we are not investing in the workforce that helps patients receive the right medicines, avoid complications and leave hospital sooner, we are not getting the full value from the infrastructure we already have.
‘NSW has recognised the importance of safe staffing levels for nurses and midwives in public hospitals. It is time for a similar commitment to the hospital pharmacy workforce, aligning with AdPha’s Clinical Pharmacy Standards.
‘Investing in hospital pharmacists is not simply about filling vacancies - it is about unlocking better patient outcomes, improving hospital efficiency and ensuring the health system can meet future demand.’
Mr Simpson also renewed AdPha’s call for NSW to become a signatory to the Pharmaceutical Reform Agreement (PRA), warning that patients in NSW continue to face inequitable access to subsidised medicines when leaving hospital.
‘Patients in NSW remain at a disadvantage compared with those in other jurisdictions because they cannot routinely leave hospital with PBS-subsidised medicines in hand.
‘This is a longstanding inequity that creates unnecessary barriers to care and places additional pressure on patients at the point of discharge.
‘Until a National PRA is established, signing an interim bilateral PRA would help ensure NSW patients leave hospital with the medicines they need, reducing delays to treatment, avoiding unnecessary GP visits and supporting safer transitions from hospital to home.
‘NSW has made a substantial investment in its health system. Ensuring hospital pharmacy services are properly resourced and addressing inequitable access to PBS medicines should now be part of the next phase of reform.’