The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) stated that this week’s release of the NSW Budget 2023-2024 features more than $14 billion in healthcare investment which includes staff retention and recruitment, and upgrading of hospital facilities. SHPA President Tom Simpson said the $2.5 billion investment to recruit and retain healthcare workers, including study subsidies for 12,000 healthcare students, is welcome news and calls on the government to ensure that hospital pharmacy gets its fair share of allocations to begin to address workforce sustainability in NSW. “Our NSW pharmacy leaders consistently report pharmacy staff vacancy rates in their departments sitting around 20-40%, and we ask that NSW pharmacy departments have a seat at the table when these new recruitment and retention policies are being implemented. “NSW significantly lags behind other states such as Victoria in hospital pharmacy intern positions despite being Australia’s most populous state,” asserted Simpson. “Without a decent pipeline of new pharmacy graduates entering NSW Health, there is no solid foundation on which to build a strong and resilient workforce to meet the increasing demands of hospital care.” Recently, the NSW gov’t accepted in principle the recommendation to increase the number of public hospital pharmacists in emergency departments as part of its inquiry into the impact of ambulance ramping, Simpson explained. “Given the high rates of turnover and difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, we need to ensure hospital pharmacy is adequately staffed to meet the healthcare needs of all patients and reduce the burden on overly stretched emergency departments,” he said. The NSW Budget also included $13.8 billion toward health facilities including 600 new hospital beds across Western Sydney. Simpson welcomed the investment while cautioning that it must come alongside investment allocated appropriately across the whole healthcare workforce. “So, while the Essential Infrastructure Plan is necessary, without available staff we won’t see the full benefit in building these new facilities, as the last thing we want to see is 600 new hospital beds that can’t be serviced.” JG