Following this week’s scope of practice announcements in NSW and the progress made in this space in Queensland, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Queensland Branch has responded to comments made by the Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) relating to pharmacy scope.
AMAQ President Dr Maria Boulton said moves by state governments to downgrade the role of GPs and other medical specialists in treating conditions such as urinary tract infections (UTIs) are dangerous.
“Patients will be at risk if this goes ahead. This is about governments caving into big political donors and ignoring patient safety,” Dr Boulton said.
In a statement released this week, the Queensland Branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said the AMAQ has made misleading comments about the North Queensland Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot, the non-complex Urinary Tract Infection Pilot – Queensland (UTIPP-Q) – now a permanent UTI health service in Queensland.
“Firstly, I congratulate the NSW Government for joining Queensland on the journey to pharmacist full scope of practice,” Queensland Branch President, Chris Owen said.
“It is disappointing … that the AMAQ uses this positive announcement to fabricate information and misinform patients across both Queensland and New South Wales,” he said.
Mr Owen says “pharmacists are not replacing general practitioners … but are working collaboratively as primary healthcare professionals for the betterment of patients” and that community pharmacists have and will continue to undertake significant professional development in order to practise to full scope.
“Community pharmacists have undertaken a four-year accredited university degree, a one-year internship, two registration exams as well as maintain annual professional development,” Mr Owen said.
“Education and training for pharmacists to provide health services within the UTIPP-Q and North Queensland Pharmacy Pilot is in addition to the years of training and on-the-job clinical experience as a community pharmacist.
“Pharmacists taking part in the North Queensland Pharmacy Pilot are required to undergo further post-graduate level training over a 12-month period, which includes supervised practice hours and a structured clinical exam – not the few hours per week as concocted by AMAQ,” he said.
Speaking about the review of the UTIPP-Q, Mr Owen said that while the “AMAQ continues to reference their discredited survey as ‘evidence’ against Queensland community pharmacists providing the UTI health service and practising to their full scope … all formal sources report the success of the UTIPP-Q service”.
“The independent outcome report and the Queensland Government found the UTIPP-Q was of significant value because of improved accessibility to primary healthcare services and, as a result, the UTI health service was implemented as a permanent pharmacy service,” Mr Owen said.
“Over 6500 Queensland women accessed the UTI health service during the UTIPP-Q and 87% of patients reported resolution of UTI symptoms following the antibiotic treatment prescribed by their local community pharmacist.
“Almost 1000 emergency department presentations were prevented by having the UTI service available through Queensland community pharmacies,” he said.
Mr Owen called on peak health bodies to work together to ensure patients have access to healthcare.
“With state-wide headlines in the past week reporting on Queenslanders’ inability to find a bulk-billing GP, it is time …[to] work together to ensure Queenslanders have access to much-needed primary healthcare services,” Mr Owen said.
“The North Queensland Pharmacy Pilot is one solution amongst many to begin reforming public healthcare services in Queensland and improve access to GPs, decrease ambulance ramping and reduce emergency department presentations,” he said.
