Pharmacy Daily | Guild slams GP “lunacy”

THE release of the recent Productivity Commission report on primary and community health in Australia (PD 31 Jan 2019) has "exposed the lunacy of suggestions by doctor commentators that prescription pack sizes be increased to reduce the need for patients to visit their local community pharmacy as often," according to Pharmacy Guild Executive Director David Quilty.

Writing in the Guild's regular Forefront update this week, Quilty also highlighted the new PSA-commissioned study from the Pharmacy Research Centre at the University of South Australia which found more than 250,000 hospitalisations and 400,000 emergency department presentations annually due to medicine-related problems.

Quilty said the reports clearly demonstrated the need for an increased commitment to medication management through Australia's community pharmacy networks.

"Every visit to a community pharmacy is an opportunity to receive expert advice from the pharmacist who professionally dispenses their medicines.

"Government policies should be actively encouraging patients to be visiting their highly accessible local pharmacies more often to make full use of this pharmacist expertise".

He said if pack sizes were increased this would be a "false economy, exacerbating issues of medicine misuse and in turn increasing the need for more expensive interventions across the broader health system".

Quilty said responsibility for effective medication management rests with a patient's prescribing doctor and their dispensing community pharmacist working in collaboration.

"This model of general practice community pharmacy based primary care is the foundation of Australia's public health system, underpinned by Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

"It should be maintained, invested in and enhanced, not undermined, bypassed or fragmented," the Guild Executive Director concluded.