Pharmacy Daily | Guild clarifies AMAQ’s script errors

LAST minute efforts by medical organisations to encourage Queensland State MPs to pull the pin on a state-wide trial of pharmacist prescribing are seeking to deliberately misinform and mislead, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia believes.

In a letter to State MPs, Queensland Guild President, Trent Twomey, sought to clarify confusion caused by a recent communication from the Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) (PD 31 Jan), which tied two separate recommendations from the Queensland Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Committee, one being the trial of pharmacist prescribing for urinary tract infections (UTIs), and the second, that the oral contraceptive pill be made available over-the-counter for Queensland women arfter an initial prescription has been made by a GP or sexual health nurse.

Twomey warned politicians from across the spectrum that the AMAQ was seeking to stall progressive steps to improve healthcare.

"When you strip out all the emotion, the AMAQ's ongoing political campaign against advances in primary health care is not driven by patient need or service but an old and tired us vs them mentality which is preventing patients from receiving world class primary health care where and when they need it," he said.

"We want to see everyone in primary health care do more given the ever increasing demand for services and the increased number of unnecessary hospitalisations.

"The AMAQ also raised baseless concerns regarding pharmacist provision of the contraceptive pill alongside the UTI trial in a deliberate attempt to mislead stakeholders by conflating these two separate issues.

"The UTI trial is specifically evaluating the management of uncomplicated UTIs by pharmacists and does not include pharmacist dispensing of the contraceptive pill claimed by AMAQ."

Twomey took aim at the AMAQ's claim that the expansion of the scope of practice for non-medical health professionals would fragment clinical care and result in poor health outcomes, was "unsubstantiated" and urged politicians to seek advice from Queensland Health to "sort fact from fiction".