Functions and Objectives
Board Members
Organisational Structure
Mission Statement
The Pharmacy Board of South Australia is an autonomous statutory authority established under the Pharmacy Practice Act 2007 whose functions include the registering of pharmacists, pharmacy students and pharmacy premises, education and training of pharmacists, dealing with complaints, issues of impairment of pharmacists and the maintenance of the highest practice standards of pharmacy for the community in South Australia.
The Board collects and retains information about pharmacists and deals with the collection, use, disclosure, security and quality of personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.
It is the Board's role to act at all times to protect the public.
The Board is required to maintain a register of all pharmacists and pharmacy students registered to practice in South Australia and all pharmacy premises in South Australia and to make the information on the register publicly available. The public register of pharmacists consists of the name, publicly available address and qualifications. The publicly available address may be a postal address of the pharmacist's choosing, including a post office box.
Privacy principles also deal with the secure storage and disposal of information, and provide an opportunity for an individual to correct inaccurate information held about them.
If you have a question about privacy and the Board, please contact the Board on (08) 8331 8865 or via email.
(1) The functions of the Board are as follows:
(a) to oversee the practice of pharmacy in the public interest;
(b) to approve, after consultation with authorities considered
appropriate by the Board, courses of education or training that provide qualifications for registration under this Act;
(c) to determine, after consultation with authorities considered appropriate by the Board, the requirements necessary for registration of persons and premises under this Act;
(d) to establish and maintain the registers contemplated by this Act;
(e) to prepare or endorse, subject to the approval of the Minister, practice rules establishing a scheme for further education, training and experience for pharmacists and governing the issue of practising certificates and the imposition of, and evidence of compliance with, conditions of practising certificates, as contemplated by Part 3 Division 3;
(f) to prepare or endorse, subject to the approval of the Minister, codes of conduct or professional standards for registered persons or codes of conduct for pharmacy services providers;
(g) to establish administrative processes for handling complaints received against registered persons, pharmacy services providers or persons who occupy positions of authority in processes under which the registered person, provider or person who occupies the position voluntarily enters into an undertaking);
(h) to provide advice to the Minister as the Board considers appropriate;
(i) to carry out other functions assigned to the Board by or under this Act, or by the Minister.
(2) The Board must perform its functions under this Act with the object of protecting the health and safety of the public by achieving and maintaining high professional standards both of competence and conduct in the provision of pharmacy services in this State.
(3) If the Minister approves practice rules or a code of conduct or professional standard prepared or endorsed by the Board, the Board must—
(a) cause a copy of the rules, code or standard to be published in the Gazette; and
(b) take reasonable steps to send a copy of the rules, code or standard to each registered person or pharmacy services provider to whom it applies; and
(c) ensure that a copy of the rules, code or standard is published on the internet and kept available for public inspection without charge during normal office hours at the principal office of the Board,
(although proof of compliance with paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) is not necessary for the purposes of any proceedings that involve an alleged contravention of or failure to comply with the rules or a code of conduct or professional standard).
(4) The administrative processes established by the Board for handling complaints received against registered persons, pharmacy services providers or persons who occupy positions of authority in corporate pharmacy services providers must be designed—
(a) to be fair to both the aggrieved person and the respondent; and
(b) to keep both the aggrieved person and the respondent properly informed about the steps taken by the Board in response to the complaint; and
(c) to provide, where appropriate, opportunities for the clarification of any misapprehension or misunderstanding between the aggrieved person and the respondent; and
(d) to keep both the aggrieved person and the respondent properly informed about the outcome of the processes; and
(e) to take into account the needs of particular classes of persons who may otherwise suffer disadvantage in the conduct of those processes.