The doctor of pharmacy will (not) see you now [UPDATED]

The University of Sydney has launched an inclusive degree which will allow people to graduate as registered pharmacists.

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From next year, high school graduates will be able to enrol to study a five-year pharmacy degree at the University of Sydney, and emerge from the program as a fully-fledged pharmacist.  

However, while the Guild says graduates of this program can use a “Doctor of Pharmacy” title, the University of Sydney’s Dean of Pharmacy says this is “not correct” and reflects a “misunderstanding”. 

The major difference between the new degree and a regular old B. Pharm?  

The key difference is that the current pharmacy intern training program will be integrated into the Master of Pharmacy Practice degree, so that graduates will have completed all the requirements to seek registration with the Pharmacy Board of Australia, Professor Andrew McLachlan told The Medical Republic.  

“This will align Sydney Pharmacy School pharmacy programs with the majority of other health professional training programs where intern training is incorporated into their degree.”  

In all other programs, pharmacists-in-training do a four-year undergraduate course, graduate, do the one-year Australian Pharmacy Council-required internship and then become a registered pharmacist. 

But in the University of Sydney’s Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) / Master of Pharmacy Practice pharmacists-in-training do a four-year undergraduate course, the one-year Australian Pharmacy Council-required internship, graduate and then become a registered pharmacist.  

In a media statement on Monday, the Guild announced that the program met the criteria for a graduate to call themselves a Doctor of Pharmacy.  

“The Extended Masters qualification includes the Intern Year, and graduates will be able to use the title Doctor of Pharmacy,” Guild President Professor Trent Twomey said.  

“This was agreed to in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement which was signed in 2020, but is yet to be implemented by the Commonwealth Government.” 

The specific clause in the 7CPA says signatories agree to “take all reasonable steps available” to enable the holder of an Australian Qualifications Framework Level 9 Masters Degree (extended) in pharmacy to be treated “by exemption” as though they had a level 10 qualification.  

Level 10, a doctoral degree, is the highest level of qualification obtainable in Australia.  

Bachelor degrees, on the other hand, are a level 7 on the Australian Qualifications Framework. 

It is unclear whether the intern year would equate to a Bachelor Honours Degree, Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma; if it did, this would bring registered pharmacists up to a level 8 on the Australian Qualifications Framework.  

UPDATE: Professor McLachlan clarifies: “The pharmacy intern training year is not being equated to Bachelor Honours Degree, Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma. The intern year is about supervised practice, and meeting the Australian Pharmacy Council performance outcomes, and other Pharmacy Board requirements.”

Masters degrees are a level 9 on the framework.  

The problem with Professor Twomey’s statement that University of Sydney pharmacy graduates would be able to use Doctor of Pharmacy as a title, however, is that the new program is not an extended Masters.  

“These new integrated undergrad/postgrad academic programs do not currently meet the Masters Degree (Extended) criteria so graduates would not hold the title of ‘Doctor’,” Professor McLachlan confirmed.  

Even if a Doctor of Pharmacy did exist, it wouldn’t make much of a practical difference.  

Other than being able to use the (admittedly pretty slick) “Doctor of Pharmacy” title, a graduate from the University of Sydney’s program would essentially be the same as a B. Pharm graduate who has completed their intern year.  

The Pharmacy Board of Australia declined to comment on the specific program but did tell The Medical Republic that granting additional authorisations to pharmacists can only be done through the inclusion of relevant provisions in jurisdictional medicines and poisons legislation, which are the remit of states and territories. 

That is to say, unless states and territory laws changed, a doctor of pharmacy would have the exact same scope of practice as a regular pharmacist. 

The Pharmacy Guild declined to provide comment on the program, despite having sent out a press release announcing the new degree.  

UPDATE: RACGP president Dr Karen Price got back to us after publication, saying: “Whilst I’m sure this new qualification holds merit for future pharmacists, it should not be used a pretext for encroaching further into the scope of responsibilities that belong in general practice.

“What is the problem that the Pharmacy Guild are trying to solve other than a marketing mercantile purpose to confuse the public?”

Referring to Queensland’s UTI prescribing program and the proposed “North Queensland Pharmacy Scope of Practice Trial”, she said many GPs “want to see pharmacists working as part of the general practice team, where they can deliver medication safety initiatives to optimise patient safety and care”.

“The supposed future growth and development of the pharmacy profession in Australia should not come at the expense of patient health and wellbeing,” she said. “We will continue to strongly advocate against the expansion of pharmacy into areas of responsibility they are simply not equipped to handle.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wording in paragraph 2 has been changed since publication as Professor McLachlan felt the word “dispute” mischaracterised his correction of the Pharmacy Guild’s statement that the degree would enable graduates to use the title Doctor of Pharmacy.