Aged Care Pharmacist Services in Australia

The services are not all interchangeable. Knowing which review applies to which situation saves time when you are arranging care for an older relative.

What an aged-care pharmacist does

An accredited pharmacist working in aged care typically does four things:

• Conducts Residential Medication Management Reviews (RMMRs) for people in residential aged care
• Conducts Home Medicines Reviews (HMRs) for people living at home, including those receiving home-care packages
• Advises facility nursing staff on safe administration, drug interactions, and deprescribing opportunities
• Supports facility-wide Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) activities like staff education, audits, and policy review

To work as an accredited pharmacist, the pharmacist completes additional training through one of the recognised credentialing bodies (the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy or the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia). The accreditation is renewed every three years and involves continuing professional development.

Accredited pharmacists usually work independently or with a pharmacy that provides services to multiple aged-care facilities. They are paid through federal funding under the Pharmacy Programs Administrator, not by the resident or the facility.

The Residential Medication Management Review (RMMR)

An RMMR is a formal review of all medicines a person in residential aged care is taking. The review is triggered by the resident's GP and conducted by an accredited pharmacist.

The process:

1. The GP refers the resident for an RMMR
2. The accredited pharmacist visits the resident at the facility, reviews their full medication list, talks to the resident (if able) and the nursing staff, and reviews the medical record
3. The pharmacist writes a report with recommendations, sent back to the GP
4. The GP decides which recommendations to act on, in consultation with the resident or their substitute decision-maker
5. A follow-up review can be conducted to assess the impact of changes

Common findings include duplicate prescriptions across multiple specialists, medicines that are no longer needed, drug interactions, and opportunities for deprescribing (stopping medicines whose risks now outweigh their benefits).

RMMRs are funded by the federal government. There is no cost to the resident or the family. Each resident is eligible for one full RMMR every two years, with a follow-up review allowed between full reviews.

The Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) programme

The QUM programme is the facility-wide layer of the same federal funding. Where an RMMR looks at one resident, QUM looks at the facility's overall medication systems.

A QUM pharmacist typically:

• Audits medication storage, administration, and disposal practices
• Reviews facility-wide patterns (rates of antipsychotic use, opioid use, anticholinergic burden)
• Delivers staff education sessions on safe administration, common interactions, and deprescribing
• Supports the facility's policies on medication incidents, after-hours supply, and emergency medicines

QUM services are funded as a per-resident, per-year payment to the facility, paid through the Pharmacy Programs Administrator. The facility chooses which accredited pharmacist or pharmacy delivers the programme.

For families of residents, the QUM service is largely invisible day to day. Its value is in safer prescribing and administration across the whole facility, not in any single interaction with one resident.

DAAs in residential aged care

Dose Administration Aids in residential aged care work differently from the consumer-facing federal DAA Programme covered in our Webster packs and DAA guide.

In residential aged care:

• The facility's preferred pharmacy supplies DAAs (or, in some facilities, the medicines are supplied loose and packed onsite by nursing staff)
• The packing labour is funded through the facility's medication management agreement, not the consumer DAA Programme
• There is no out-of-pocket cost to the resident for the packing service
• The resident still pays PBS or PBS-concession prices for the medicines themselves

Some facilities use sachet-style DAAs rather than the more familiar weekly blister tray. The choice is operational; both formats meet the same clinical purpose.

Families do not need to arrange the DAA. The facility handles it.

Onsite pharmacist roles under the 2023 reforms

The Aged Care Act reforms passed in 2023 introduced funding for onsite pharmacists in residential aged care facilities. This is a significant change in how aged-care medication services are delivered.

Under the new model:

• Each eligible facility receives federal funding to engage an onsite pharmacist for a set number of hours per week
• The pharmacist's role is broader than an external accredited pharmacist: they participate in clinical handovers, attend GP visits, train nursing staff, review medication incidents, and advise on individual residents in close to real time
• The aim is to embed pharmacy expertise inside the facility rather than treating it as an external service

The rollout is staged. Not every facility had an onsite pharmacist by 2026, and the funded hours vary by facility size. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publishes implementation updates at health.gov.au.

For families, the onsite pharmacist is a useful person to ask about a resident's medication concerns. If the facility has one, ask the clinical care coordinator how to arrange a conversation.

Choosing a pharmacy for a relative in residential care

The facility chooses its own preferred pharmacy. You usually do not pick.

What you can do:

• Ask the facility which pharmacy it uses and whether it has an onsite pharmacist or a regular visiting accredited pharmacist
• Ask whether the facility delivers RMMRs every two years as part of its standard care
• Ask whether QUM activities are documented and how often staff receive medication-related training
• Ask whether your relative's medicines are reviewed when they move into the facility, when they return from hospital, and when a new diagnosis is added

If you have concerns about a specific medicine, the right person to raise it with is your relative's GP. The GP is the prescriber and they decide what to start, stop, or change. An accredited pharmacist supports the decision; they do not make it independently.

Choosing a pharmacy for a relative in home care

If your relative is receiving home care (a Home Care Package, or the Commonwealth Home Support Programme) but living in their own home, the rules are different. They are eligible for:

• The federal Dose Administration Aids Programme (see our Webster packs guide)
• Home Medicines Reviews (HMRs), an at-home version of the RMMR
• MedsChecks at the pharmacy counter

You can choose your relative's community pharmacy. Things worth asking when comparing pharmacies:

• Do they offer home delivery of Webster packs and other medicines?
• Do they have an accredited pharmacist who conducts HMRs?
• Do they have experience with home-care package residents (familiar with the paperwork, the case manager liaison)?
• Are they on the PBS Safety Net and do they handle online claims smoothly?
• Are they open at hours that suit family pickup if delivery is not available?

The home-care provider's case manager can usually recommend pharmacies they work with regularly. Ask for two or three options and call each.