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‘Farcical’: GPs refute pharmacy prescribing figures
The peak body claims its plan to expand pharmacists’ scope will free up 6.5 million GP visits, but the RACGP says this fails to reflect GPs in a ‘fair or reasonable way’.
According to modelling commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, if its plan is actioned, 52,000 hours at emergency departments will be freed up.
GPs have hit back at claims from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia that its plan to significantly expand the profession’s scope of practice will free up 6.5 million GP consultations.
It comes after the body released its Towards 2035 10-year plan last week, saying the strategy will deliver $5.1 billion in healthcare savings.
According to modelling commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild, if its plan is actioned, 52,000 hours at emergency departments will also be freed up, as well as $1.4 billion in productivity benefit from reduced absenteeism and presenteeism.
newsGP requested the modelling but it was not made available, however the 6.5 million figure has been used since at least 2023 ahead of the Towards 2035 plan’s release.
The plan’s headline goal is to have 80% of community pharmacists qualified to prescribe by 2035.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told newsGP he is ‘interested in seeing the Guild’s modelling’.
‘It’s a big number, 6.5 million consults, and I’d be concerned that it’s coming at the expense of creating more complex work, which needs to be followed up later because people haven’t presented in a timely manner,’ he said.
This is echoed by RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements, who describes the claims as ‘headline-grabbing’, saying he is yet to see evidence on-the-ground of pharmacy prescribing freeing up GPs’ time.
Last year, there were 163.5 million GP attendances in Australia, with 90% of Australians visiting a GP.
There are currently just 150 pharmacists trained to treat a range of conditions across Australia, with Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President Professor Trent Twomey saying in March there were ‘500 more currently in training’.
At the same time, pharmacists in Victoria, for example, provided 23,000 services in the first 12 months of its prescribing pilot.
To achieve the plan of having 80% of community pharmacists qualified to prescribe, 32,000 pharmacists will need to be qualified in the next decade.
‘The Pharmacy Guild in no way shows any understanding of the risks of what they are suggesting, the harms that come from it, and the idea that somehow they’re going to save 6.5 million GP consults is farcical,’ Associate Professor Clements told newsGP.
‘It tries to assume that GPs deal with one thing at a time, that we only see people with a rash and that we don’t actually check their blood pressure, their Pap smear status, their flu vaccines status.
‘It’s not in any way characterising general practice services in a fair or reasonable way.’
Pharmacy prescribing continues to gain momentum across Australia.
Urinary tract infections can now be diagnosed and treated by a pharmacist in every state and territory, while pilot programs for the treatment of other conditions have been made permanent.
Professor Twomey said he wants patients to ‘think pharmacy first’ when it comes to accessing primary healthcare.
‘It makes sense that pharmacists step up, take on more clinical responsibilities to ease pressure on public hospitals and GP clinics across the country,’ he said.
‘Community pharmacists are ready to do more.’
Associate Professor Clements said because many patients like the idea of pharmacy prescribing, it is ‘actually a bit of a challenge for us in medical advocacy’.
‘But we know patients are at risk from this change and from this position and we’re already getting very clear stories of harm, and even in my own practice,’ he said.
‘I’m cleaning up other people’s mess, or people suffering pain longer, or an additional person is getting a transmitted infection because it was mistreated by the pharmacist in the first place.’
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