“The greatest risk to patients is not receiving care at all. Every day Australians are waiting days and sometimes weeks to see a GP for straightforward health issues. Delayed diagnosis and delayed treatment carry real consequences for patients.
“The AMA is attempting to conflate pharmacist prescribing within Therapeutic Guidelines with unfettered access to all Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medicines. That is misleading and does not reflect the reality of the services currently being delivered across Australia.
“These programs are carefully designed, condition based and built around strict clinical governance protocols, safety netting, referral pathways and additional appropriate pharmacist training. Patients presenting outside those strict protocols are immediately referred to a doctor.
“Pharmacists do not want to replace GPs or the important care they provide. Enabling specially trained pharmacists to provide care for specific conditions is good health care policy. It allows for the appropriate care to be delivered at the right time, in the right place with the appropriate clinician. It’s been proven to be effective and safe internationally, specifically in comparable countries like the UK, Canada and New Zealand.
“The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has never argued against specially trained pharmacists being able to prescribe hormonal contraception. The TGA’s advice was against lowering the scheduling of the medication. Deliberately misusing the TGA’s advice may create nice headlines but it’s fake news and health professionals have a responsibility not to mislead the public in this way.
“Predictably the AMA has gone out of its way to cry “wolf!”. We have seen this playbook before. Yet all evidence shows that pharmacist prescribing works and the safety of care is the equivalent to other clinical settings.
“Pharmacist prescribing works. It’s safe, it’s effective and it makes care accessible.
“At a time when government, health experts and patients are calling for better access to care, it is disappointing to see professional protectionism being placed ahead of practical solutions. Again.”
