The Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Pharmacy service, to be based at the Repat Health Precinct at Daw Park, will comprise a lead pharmacist, three senior pharmacists and a pharmacy technician, whose jobs will be to safely supply euthanasia medication to eligible patients.

Pharmacist Lauren Cortis has been appointed to run the service, having spent the past 10 months developing the medication protocols ahead of the VAD legislation coming into effect on January 31.

She described the laws, which allow South Australians with a diagnosed incurable illness to voluntarily access and self-administer a medication that will cause their death, as an “important social reform”.

“The pharmacy service will be the single supplier of the medication for all patients accessing voluntary assisted during throughout South Australia,” she told reporters this morning.

“We will be also responsible for educating the patients, their caregivers and the contact person who’s responsible for returning any unused medication once the person has died – or if they decide not to continue with the pathway.

“We will also be the central support for medical practitioners – helping them adapt to this new area of practice.”

The pharmacy is part of a suite of measures costing the government more than $18 million over five years to implement the VAD legislation.

Alongside a new eight-member review board to retrospectively monitor VAD in South Australia, the government is also recruiting “care navigators” whose job will be to help patients and their families work through the legislated requirements.

Similar roles already exist in Victoria and Western Australia, where VAD has been available for several years.

“We’ve learnt from Victoria and Western Australia how important it is to have people whose job it is to help people through the pathway, through the legislation, because it can be a complex piece of legislation to navigate with all the 70 different safeguards that are part of the legislation here in South Australia,” Health Minister Chris Picton said.

“These care navigators will assist people wanting to go through this scheme, making sure that they appropriately go through all the elements of the legislation before that voluntary assisted dying drug is administered.”

Those interested in becoming “care navigators” have until Friday to apply for the roles.

Meanwhile, the government plans to start training doctors and clinicians on how to abide by the VAD laws within the coming weeks.

SA Health will also host a one-day virtual conference next month, where clinicians, health services and residential care services staff can learn about the legislation and hear from people with personal experience of VAD.

“It’s really important that we educate GPs, doctors in hospitals right across the state on how this legislation works, what the steps are going to be involved in doing it, what they can and can’t do as part of that education,” Picton said.

“We’re really encouraging as many doctors in South Australia as possible to come forward and do that training to make sure that they’re up to speed.”

Former Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Chris Moy, who chaired the VAD implementation taskforce in South Australia, described the legislation as a “massive change for the health system”.

He said those who wish to access VAD must make three specific requests and be reviewed by two doctors.

“(It) will affect not only individuals who want this service and who have been crying out for it, but also the entire health system, including those who might want to conscientiously object, or those who we need to protect – for example those who are vulnerable, or possibly in the position where they may be coerced,” he said.

VAD advocates have long expressed concern about the time it has taken the government to implement the legislation after it passed parliament in an historic vote in June last year.

The former Marshall Government initially flagged that the laws would come into effect in March 2023, but current Attorney-General Kyam Maher – who pushed for the legislation’s passage through the upper house – said waiting that long was “not good enough”.

The Malinauskas Government earlier this year announced it had pushed the implementation date forward to January 31, but advocates argue that would lead to people “suffering” over Christmas and have called for a November start date.

Picton today reiterated that the government was open to bringing the implementation date forward if it was possible to do so.

“If there is the ability for us to bring that forward any more than the 31^st of January then we will certainly do so, but we need to be assured that scheme is going to operate safely and has all the proper safeguards and training and IT support in place,” he said.