The power of togetherness – Perhaps one of the most important lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic is that the collaboration of health professionals – integrating healthcare and medication provision – is more important now than ever in managing the health of the community.
The pandemic’s challenges have meant that the healthcare sector has needed to make swift operational changes to ensure continuity of care throughout the crisis. These changes have included short-term modifications in prescribing and more telehealth services, especially during outbreaks.
A new report commissioned by the Federal Department of Health and released by NPS MedicineWise points to the benefits of these changes.
The report, ‘General Practice Insights’, looked at the de-identified data of around 2.5 million patients in 2019-2020 from the NPS MedicineInsight program.
NPS MedicineWise says this sample is representative of all those people seen by GPs nationally, with the data showing common chronic health conditions and aspects of the clinical management the patients received, including changes observed during the pandemic.
“The data shows us that great use was made of the newly publicly funded telehealth consultations throughout the pandemic,” NPS MedicineWise CEO Katherine Burchfield said.
“From March 2020 to December 2020, almost three in 10 of all consultations were virtual, with particularly high usage in Victoria during the Melbourne second wave of the pandemic.
“Despite concerns that patients would see their GP less often during the pandemic, the overall number of consultations (including telehealth consultations) increased by 11 per cent in this period.
“In March 2020, as the pandemic started, rates of medical and pathology testing decreased, while prescribing of medicines for many chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes increased. People may have been ensuring they had enough supplies of their medicines before lockdown. Rates of prescribing and testing returned to pre-pandemic levels from June 2020 onwards.”
Ms Burchfield refers to the implementation of virtual (including telehealth) consultations as a “silver lining” of the pandemic.
“The rate of visits to the doctor with acute respiratory tract infections more than halved,” she said.
The General Practice Insights report also provides information on how often patients visit their doctor, the conditions they have, the medicines they’re prescribed and the tests they undertake.
“The increasing number of projects and scientific publications using MedicineInsight data is a tribute to its growing importance in informing policy and research to improve the health outcomes for all Australians,” Ms Burchfield said.
The integration of pharmacy
According to a document released by the Pharmacy Guild (published in 2020), the future of pharmacy lies in its “better integration within the broader health system”.
The Guild says this integration will help “tackle the need for a more coordinated and collaborative approach to patient care across the health system”.
While the pandemic has cemented community pharmacy within the frontline healthcare sector, the Guild says pharmacies “need to continue to position themselves so they can play a central role in an integrated primary healthcare environment”.
The Guild suggests that this integration includes medicine provision, “along with an emphasis on prevention, early intervention and wellness, as well as the ongoing need for a team-based approach to the support of patients with chronic and complex diseases”.
“Those pharmacies that establish themselves as true health destinations, able to deliver health solutions in a high-quality health setting, using the skills of highly trained health practitioners who are practising at the top of their profession and utilising the latest digital technologies and collaborative tools and cultures, will lead the way in integrating with the broader health system,” the Guild added.
This feature was originally published in the April issue of Retail Pharmacy magazine: retailpharmacymagazine.com.au/magazine/retail-pharmacy-april-2022
