FEDERAL, State and Territory Health Ministers have agreed to make Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) and medicines safety the 10th National Health Priority Area.
The announcement was made at last weekend's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council meeting in Perth, and follows Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt's pledge to make medicines safety a national health priority at the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia's (PSA's) conference in Sydney in Jul.
As part of the agreement the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council will collaborate with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and the Australian Digital Health Agency to prepare a national baseline report to identify priority areas, best practice models and new national standards.
PSA National President, Dr Chris Freeman welcomed the decision to commit to a baseline report, but stressed "it must not stop there".
"There needs to be meaningful commitment from all parties involved in healthcare delivery, including health professionals, peak organisations, and government to reduce harm from medicines use," he said.
Freeman said the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) provided an opportunity for the Federal Government to fund pharmacist-led safety programs.
"Pharmacists are medicines experts," he said
"They must be supported to spend more time -- both in the community pharmacy setting and other parts of the health care system, including aged care facilities -- reviewing patients' medications, providing advice to members of the health care team, and educating consumers about medicine safety.
"Research released last week found pharmacist-led medicine charting in hospitals reduced the proportion of patients with at least one medicine problem from 66% to 3.6%."
Freeman noted the Productivity Commission's Draft Report on Mental Health, released on Thu, overlooked the role of quality use of medicines in the treatment of mental health.
"We need to ensure we are using medicine as effectively as possible in the treatment of mental ill-health," he said.
"For this reason, PSA does not think it is possible to look at mental health care without considering the safe and quality use of medicines."
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