‘A step backwards’: Another pharmacy pilot made permanent

Victorian pharmacists’ scope of practice is set to expand as the State Government makes pharmacy prescribing permanent.
 
The decision was made in a bid to ‘help reduce pressure’ on the state’s health system, but the RACGP is deeply concerned the nationwide trend of pharmacy prescribing is risking patient safety and fragmenting care.
 
Announced in the 2025–26 Victorian Budget, handed down on Tuesday, an $18-million investment will fund pharmacists to deliver expanded care through free consultations in community pharmacies.
 
The number of conditions for which pharmacists can prescribe and dispense treatments will also expand to 22, as all streams of Victoria’s Community Pharmacy Statewide Pilot become permanent.
 
The Government says additional conditions will be ‘added progressively over the next two years’.
 
Amid the RACGP’s ongoing disappointment with the expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice, the announcement has raised concerns with RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Muñoz, who labelled it ‘deeply disappointing and a step backwards’.
 
‘The RACGP continues to be of the opinion, which we’ve held from the very beginning of this, that the most important thing is patient safety and good clinical outcomes,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘We want to make it clear that when people prescribe drugs, that is a serious undertaking and a serious matter, and the person who prescribes a medication takes responsibility for that action and for the diagnosis behind that action, and then of course, for the outcomes of prescribing that medication.
 
‘If the pharmacist is making an independent decision saying, “I’ve assessed this health condition, I’m independently choosing a medication for you that is not coming directly from a script issued by a GP”, that pharmacist is taking responsibility for making that diagnosis and prescribing that drug.
 
‘That responsibility cannot then be passed over vicariously to a GP who is not involved in that interaction.’
 
Victoria initially began a 12-month statewide pilot program in October 2023, which was then extended to 30 June 2025 while an evaluation was completed.
 
During the pilot, trained pharmacists were allowed to prescribe for shingles, a flare-up of mild plaque psoriasis, resupply of select oral contraceptive pills without a prescription, and uncomplicated urinary tract infections.
 
Now, the expanded list has grown to include allergies, type 2 diabetes, asthma, ear infections, smoking cessation support, and minor wound care.
 
Expansion of Victorian pharmacists’ scope of practice comes just days after the Tasmanian Government announced that its 2025–26 budget includes $5 million to further the role of pharmacy prescribing to include treatment of conditions such as ear infections, reflux, shingles, eczema, rhinitis and wound care.
 
It has also been recently announced that services provided through Queensland’s Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot and the state’s Community Pharmacy Hormonal Contraception Pilot will continue permanently.
 
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says the pilot’s permanency will enable pharmacists to treat more Victorians with more conditions, reduce pressure on the health system and ‘support patients who cannot wait or pay for a visit to their GP’.
 
But Dr Muñoz warns of the risk of fragmented care and adverse patient outcomes.
 
‘This may encourage people to seek their care in pharmacies, citing convenience and not having to spend their time and money on a GP,’ she said.
 
‘We should not be encouraging or endorsing people to abandon holistic care with their GP, to have parts of their health managed in disparate parts of the health system.
 
‘We know coordinated care and care with one person is what has been demonstrated internationally for decades to actually improve health outcomes and keep you out of hospital.’
 
Additionally, Dr Muñoz says the college remains concerned that in a pharmacy retail environment, the business ‘directly profits’ from the decision to prescribe medications.

‘We have been protected from that conflict of interest in Australia, where we have said that prescribers and sellers of medication should not co-exist, but for reasons we don’t understand, that is not being acknowledged in any of the pharmacy trials that are occurring around Australia,’ she said.

‘And we continue to stand by the belief that it is problematic for a person to directly profit when they are prescribing medications.’

An evaluation of Victoria’s Community Pharmacy Statewide Pilot is expected to be released shortly.
The State Budget also includes additional funding for urgent care clinics, new or expanded public hospitals, and an expansion of the Victorian Virtual Emergency Department.
 
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