Despite seemingly high uptake of pharmacist-led prescribing services, most pharmacists say patients are not fully aware of the range of ‘full scope’ services they provide.
Close to 60% of pharmacists say they have treated at least one patient for asthma in the past six months, and even more say they have treated a minor wound, GORD or a urinary tract infection – and that’s without full patient awareness of expanded scope.
The 2026 University of Technology Sydney community pharmacy barometer report surveyed 360 pharmacists nationwide, with data collected in late 2025 and the report published earlier this month.
When asked what level of qualification they thought was needed for pharmacists to undertake prescribing “safely and effectively”, 38% of respondents said they thought a CPD course was adequate.
Slightly more (46%) said they thought a graduate certificate was necessary, while just 13% thought a doctoral qualification was needed.
“The relatively high proportion of respondents identifying CPD courses also indicates that many pharmacists consider targeted professional training sufficient to develop the competencies required for prescribing,” the report said.
“Pharmacists tend to favour practical, competency-based training pathways over more extensive academic qualifications when implementing expanded scope of practice initiatives.”
Asked about services delivered in the past six months, 82.8% of respondents said they had managed UTIs, 68.9% said they had managed rhinitis, and 64.4% said they had performed minor wound management.
A further 57.5% said they had managed asthma, 56.9 said they had managed shingles and 50% said they had provided hormonal contraception.
On the lower end of the scale, 44.7% said they had managed mild-moderate acne management, 26.9% said they had managed hypertension and 20.3% said they had managed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Just 2.2% of respondents said they had not provided any professional services included under expanded scope of practice trials.
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The report suggested that the reason fewer pharmacists were managing the more complex conditions like COPD and hypertension was because Queensland was the only state where pharmacists were allowed to manage these conditions at the time of the survey, rather than concerns about clinical complexity.
Just 38 pharmacists identified “consumer interest” as a key factor driving the provision of full-scope professional services.
“Most respondents consider that patients have partial awareness of the services offered by community pharmacies,” the report said.
“A large majority (77%) reported that patients were only aware of some of the services, indicating that while community pharmacies are visible to the public, the full scope of their services may not be completely understood.
“This suggests that although pharmacies are recognised as healthcare access points, many people may primarily associate them with traditional roles such as dispensing medicines, rather than the broader range of clinical and professional services they provide.”
Pharmacist respondents said they would like to see more advertising of full scope of practice capabilities, including physical in-store signage, increased social media presence and “support from other [healthcare practitioners]”.
