Pharmacy Daily | No need for pharmacist Rx – RACGP

PHARMACIST prescribing is "a solution looking for a problem" according to Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) National President, Dr Harry Nespolon.

Responding to the Pharmacy Board of Australia's position statement declaring there are no barriers to pharmacists prescribing in collaboration with medical professionals or under limited authorisation, Nespolon said it was no surprise that the Board said it had no immediate plans to apply for an endorsement to enable fully autonomous prescribing.

Speaking to the RACGP's newsGP website, Nespolon suggested that if the reason for pharmacist prescribing was to improve access to medicines, changes to the Pharmacy Location Rules could be a remedy.

"It seems odd to ask pharmacists whether they should be prescribing -- the not surprising answer was yes," he said.

"This is a solution looking for a problem.

"Is there any evidence that patients are missing out on medication?

"If so, removing the geographical location rules [on pharmacy ownership] would fix the problem."

Pharmacists have rejected the RACGP's assertion that the Board's decision not to apply for an endorsement to enable them to prescribe autonomously was "effectively ruling out this model", with one pharmacist responding on Twitter saying, "that's not what this means at all".

While Nespolon's assertion that removing the Location Rules would improve access to medicines runs contrary to the findings of the Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation by Professor Stephen King, published in 2016, which noted there were inconsistencies in the location of pharmacies prior to the introduction of the rules.

"[The 1988 Pharmaceutical Benefits Remuneration Tribunal] found that many pharmacies in urban areas were clustered together with rural and remote areas having significantly poorer access," he said.

"In some cases pharmacies were located within 10 metres of each other, 25% of pharmacies were within 100 metres of another pharmacy and 62% were within one kilometre of another pharmacy, while other areas struggled to attract even one."

King said the introduction of the Location Rules resulted in a restructuring of the sector that encouraged greater efficiency within the sector and led to the opening of pharmacies in areas of need.