COMMUNITY pharmacists may soon be able to triage, manage and appropriately refer patients to general practitioners (GPs) for minor ailments through agreed referral pathways, if new research out of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) gains traction.
Researchers demonstrated significant clinical and economic impact of a collaborative Australian Minor Ailments Scheme, if nationally implemented.
The UTS research team, Sarah Dineen-Griffin, Dr Victoria Garcia Cardenas, Prof Kylie Williams and Emeritus Prof Charlie Benrimoj, in collaboration with Western Sydney Primary Health Network (WSPHN) evaluated a consultation service for community pharmacists helping them take a "structured and integrated approach to consultation".
The service would standardise practice, focus on increasing the quality and safe use of medicines and encourage patients to seek care at the appropriate level with greater accessibility.
"The evaluation of the service demonstrated extremely positive results at both the patient and economic level, and the potential impact if the consultation service is implemented on a larger national scale," researchers reported.
Further, the service would promote collaboration between professions.
The service would involve standard triage consultation pre-agreed with GPs, integrated health platforms, upskilling for community pharmacists and change facilitation support.
The work included 55 community pharmacists from 30 community pharmacies, 150 GPs from 27 general practices and 894 patients.
Pharmacists provided self-care advice in almost all consultations (98%), compared to 62% of patients receiving usual pharmacist care and 94% of patients achieved symptom resolution or improvement within two weeks, while this figure was 88% in the usual care arm.
National implementation was extrapolated to potentially save the Australian taxpayer between $380 million and $1.3 billion per annum, based on remuneration of $14.50 per pharmacist consultation as determined by the average duration of the service.
Access the study at uts.edu.au.
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