Increasing Australian pharmacy's role in meeting national and international antimicrobial resistance objectives

The 2016 G20 summit recognised the threat of antimicrobial resistance as not just a health issue, but also one that poses an economic risk to many counties and requires global efforts and collaboration to tackle. Australia is already implementing strategies to mitigate the risk of antimicrobial resistance but acknowledges that newer antibiotics are not the only solution and that more needs to be done in the primary health sector. This article explains how the pharmacy profession is positioned to help meet these needs by expanding roles and activities already undertaken by pharmacies and augmenting them to help meet the national strategy around tackling antimicrobial resistance. The factors that would need to be addressed to ensure this is done in a way that strengthens the profession and promotes collaboration with other health professions on local, national and international levels are discussed.