Pharmacists urged to bridge medication safety gap for CALD communities

In a country where nearly one in three people receiving subsidised medicines was born overseas, Australian research is drawing attention to a quiet but consequential failure: the language gap between pharmacists and their patients too often goes unbridged. Dr Imaina Widagdo's findings reveal that nearly half of PBS recipients with limited English are managing six or more medications simultaneously — a complexity that demands clear communication, yet rarely receives it. Free interpreter services exist and cost pharmacies nothing, yet they remain largely unused, suggesting the barrier is not one