State governments are forging ahead with either promises or immediate action to widen the powers of pharmacists and ease the pressure on a stressed health system.
A shortage of GPs across the country, leading to extended waits for appointments, seems a long way from being solved. As a result, state governments are stepping in.
But far from being happy with the moves, GPs are furious.
In NSW, the government is allowing pharmacists to administer a wider range of public health and travel vaccinations, including Japanese encephalitis, hepatitis A and B, poliomyelitis, typhoid and zoster.
It is also funding a 12-month trial that allows pharmacists to prescribe medication for urinary tract infections and is supporting a pilot program where trained pharmacists can prescribe medication for conditions such as skin problems, ear infections and contraception.
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The Victorian government, ahead of tomorrow’s poll, is promising similar changes.
If re-elected, it aims to allow Victorian pharmacists to treat minor conditions such as skin problems and administer travel and public health vaccinations.
They would also be able to treat straightforward urinary tract infections (UTIs) and reissue prescriptions for contraceptives.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the reforms aimed to relieve pressure on emergency departments and GP wait times.
“The federal government should be providing more support for GPs and a greater amount of free bulk-billing services, but we can’t sit around and wait for them to catch up and meet the growing demand,” he said.
Read: GP wait times increase as Australia faces ‘perfect storm’
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said pharmacists had a wealth of knowledge and experience and it made sense to expand their role.
“When you wake up feeling sick, or you run out of your prescription medication, it doesn’t do you any good if you can’t get in to see your GP for more than a week,” he said.
Under the Victorian pilot, pharmacists would receive $20 per consultation, with all fees paid by the government and patients paying no more than the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) co-payment.
The measure would also deliver valuable savings, with a typical out-of-pocket fee of $50 per visit to a GP.
In Queensland, a year-long trial allows pharmacists to prescribe medication for antibiotics for UTIs.
Pharmacy guilds welcome the state moves, but GPs are up in arms.
After the NSW announcement, a furious Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) warned the government “in the strongest possible terms” to abandon the move.
“Stop this madness before it’s too late. This is a recipe for disaster plain and simple,” said RACGP president and adjunct professor Karen Price.
She said GPs had reported many concerning incidents following pharmacists’ widened powers.
“A patient in their 50s [was] prescribed antibiotics for a presumed UTI who turned out to have a 15-centimetre pelvic mass. There was also another patient in their 60s with a recurrent UTI being prescribed the antibiotic trimethoprim, despite known resistance to the drug.
“These are just some of the cases we know about.”
Adj. Prof. Price said care would be fragmented, resulting in reduced patient safety and poorer health outcomes.
“This isn’t a solution for patients, this is a solution for the pharmacy lobby,” she said. “Continuity of care with a GP is so important, particularly for those patients with multiple, chronic conditions that need careful follow-up and management.”
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Victorian Pharmacy Guild branch president Anthony Tassone welcomed Labor’s promise.
“Pharmacists are highly skilled and qualified medicine experts, who already assess, diagnose and treat common conditions every day,” he said, adding that pharmacists had been permitted to prescribe for some years in New Zealand, parts of Canada and the UK.
“Authorising pharmacists to treat uncomplicated UTIs and issue repeat oral contraceptive prescriptions is a practical step that will help relieve the burden on our overstretched health system and ensure women have access to the routine healthcare services they need.”
He said data released last week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that almost 40 per cent of Australians who saw a GP for urgent medical care waited 24 hours or more for an appointment.
Have you had difficulty obtaining a timely consultation with your GP? Do you welcome moves to give pharmacists greater powers? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
There will always be examples of mistakes. There would be reams of examples of doctor mistakes.
This sounds like a reasonable step forward. A better one would be to massively increase the number of places for doctors to study, this is going to be much worse further down the line.
With most doctors being booked up to 1-2 weeks in advance this makes sense. Of course there will be mistakes, but doctors certainly don’t have a clean rap sheet. Thank goodness our doctor will organize digital scripts after texting him – of course that’s only for regular medication nothing new. I trust my local pharmacist as he explains thoroughly any new medication. I’m sure there was an uproar when ambulance officers were being trained to be paramedics, and nurse practicioners – we have to keep advancing.