Australia is big and getting medicines to people when they need them, regardless of where they live is a challenge.

Wholesaler companies that supply pharmacies are normally able to send the medicines you need within 24 hours to anywhere in Australia. But this is no easy task – actually, it’s a huge feat of logistics. There are over 5,400 pharmacies dispensing more than 740,000 prescriptions a day, or to put it another way, a huge 270 million scripts a year!

To achieve this the Australian Government has set aside money in a funding pool called the Community Service Obligation (CSO), which is part of a larger Community Pharmacy Agreement. This money supports key wholesalers in achieving this outstanding rate of delivery, and is vital to the success of the pharmaceutical benefits scheme as a whole. It’s good to know your medicine will be there when you need it!

• National Pharmaceutical Services Association>What is the CSO
• National Pharmaceutical Services Association>Australian Pharmacy Going the extra mile [Video]