The AMA has made a submission to the Draft National Medicines Policy (NMP) consultation. The AMA is supportive of the direction of the Draft, however key AMA recommendations have not been addressed.
In the AMA’s initial submission, the recommendations included developing set of Key Performance Indicators to ensure Australia is meeting the objectives of the NMP. Other key recommendations included reinstating a national medicines advisory body to ensure the NMP remains relevant, and to monitor NMP policies and programs, and introducing new objectives that recognises how Australia’s broader health environment influences medicines use in Australia.
While positive developments were made, in general the lack of meaningful governance and reporting mechanisms mean this policy is not yet ready. The AMA supports the calls to complete this policy review after the upcoming Federal Election to ensure it is not rushed.
Some of the AMA’s initial recommendations were included in the draft NMP, including the integration of a person-centred approach into the NMP, and an increased focus on health literacy. However other concerns have not been appropriately considered, such as pharmacy ownership and location rules needing to be changed to increase medicines access and reduce the cost of medicines. The NMP should be used as a vehicle to ensure that future community pharmacy agreements meet the principles and pillars of the new NMP, as the current agreement is far from meeting them. The AMA also calls for dedicated strategies to mitigate against the risk of medicine shortages.
