The Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council (APAC), active between 1996 and 2006, was "a consultative forum that brought together stakeholders from the medical, nursing and pharmacy professions, as well as industry, consumers and government, to advise the Australian Government Minister for Health and Ageing on medicines policy".
[2] Over subsequent years the Council developed Australia's National Medicines Policy (NMP),[1] and published several guidelines on medication management.
[3] Secretariat support for APAC was provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing - National Medicines Policy Strategies Section.
[4] In late 2005, the Department of Health and Ageing engaged a consultant to undertake a review of APAC's operational arrangements.
In 2005 APAC released Guiding Principles to Achieve Continuity in Medication Management,[8] to reduce "the discontinuity that occurs when consumers move between different health care settings and health care providers," which often causes "patient harm and sub-optimal use of medicines".