Exceptional Tasmanian pharmacists honoured

Respected pharmacist Graeme Holloway received the Tasmanian Pharmacist Lifetime Achievement Award at the fifth annual Tasmanian Pharmacist Dinner on Saturday 20 October.

 

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President Dr Shane Jackson presented the award to Mr Holloway at the iconic Henry Jones Art Hotel on the Hobart waterfront.

 

Tom Simpson won Pharmacist of the Year at the awards night, while Emma Shepperd took home the Early Career Pharmacist Award.

 

The event was a collaboration between PSA, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and the University of Tasmania Pharmacy Department.

 

PSA National President Dr Shane Jackson congratulated Mr Holloway and said his dedication to pharmacy had helped raise the standards of the profession and pharmacy organisations.

 

“Graeme was a fantastic mentor, not only to his own staff but to the hospital pharmacy interns he trained in his own time,” he said. “He was also recognised earlier this year when he was awarded PSA Life Fellow status at the PSA18 national conference in Sydney.”

 

Mr Holloway is a former president and national delegate of the Pharmacy Board of Tasmania, responsible for redrafting the Tasmanian Pharmacy Act.

 

Tom Simpson, the Executive Director of Statewide Hospital Pharmacy in Tasmania, was presented with the Pharmacist of the Year Award by SHPA National President Professor Michael Dooley.

 

Prof Dooley said, “Tom has applied his broad skillset, creativity and patient focus in a variety of roles including establishing Tasmania’s digital medical record system. In pharmacy he has shown passionate commitment to improving medication safety across Tasmania’s health system, including establishing rural pharmacy services to ensure patients in rural hospitals receive the same level of pharmacy care they would in acute hospitals.”

 

Emma Shepperd was announced the winner of the Early Career Pharmacist Award by Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President George Tambassis.

 

“Emma has successfully developed professional services, health promotions and community programs in the small town of Triabunna on the East Coast, attracting national news coverage,” Mr
Tambassis said. “She is the embodiment of a caring community pharmacist making a difference.”

 

Pharmacist Greg Kay was also awarded the Guild Distinguished Service Award, and Harvey Cuthill OAM received PSA Life Membership.

 

–ENDS–

Media contact:

Jarryd Luke

Senior Communications Officer

0487 922 176