‘Just another glossy report’: RACGP rejects pharmacy claims

The RACGP is casting serious doubt over fresh data claiming pharmacy prescribing will free up more than 10 million general practice appointments each year, saying it comes from ‘just another glossy report’.
 
On Tuesday, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia released the ‘Rewriting the Script’ report, which says the profession’s autonomous prescribing could deliver more than $1 billion in health system savings annually, as well as broader economic benefits of $21 billion.
 
The report, which was prepared by HTANALYSTS, calls for national consistency, remuneration for pharmacist prescribing consultations, PBS funding for medicines prescribed within scope, and incentives for collaborative care.
 
It claims that through these changes, more than 30,000 hospitalisations will be prevented annually, as well as ‘substantial improvements in quality of life’.
 
‘A coordinated reform agenda encompassing regulation, digital integration and funding will allow Australia to fully realise the health, economic, and wellbeing benefits of pharmacist prescribing while ensuring that GPs remain central to the coordination and oversight of patient care,’ the report said.
 
But RACGP President Dr Michael Wright has questioned the modelling, saying the report has done nothing to change his mind about the rollout of pharmacy prescribing.
 
‘It’s critical that any change needs to integrate and not fragment the existing healthcare system, and that’s what’s missing from this report,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘The international evidence shows that having access to comprehensive, high-quality, longitudinal care from a GP who knows you, that is the best way to improve the productivity of our nation, and that’s how to make workforce savings.
 
‘We need to call this out as just another glossy report.’
 
The report developed impact models for four case studies: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hormonal contraception, and cardiovascular risk reduction.
 
These models analysed impacts of pharmacist prescribing over a one-year time horizon for 2025.
 
‘The approach used in this analysis relies on published sources for each of the included costs, prevalence and utilisation, rather than primary data collection and analysis,’ the report said.
 
‘As such, results are limited by the availability and quality of the underlying data. The modelling also assumed sufficient trained pharmacist prescriber capacity to meet projected demand.’
 
The report also cites a projected GP shortfall of 8600 by 2048, arguing that, in this future healthcare landscape, structural reform is needed to maintain timely access to care.
 
It says that by shifting millions of routine consultations from general practice to pharmacy, it will free up GPs to focus on patients with more complex and multimorbid needs.
 
‘This redistribution of care would increase effective GP capacity, enabling medical practitioners to focus on more complex patients within the existing workforce while reducing wait times and improving timely access, particularly in rural and remote communities,’ it says.
 
Dr Wright says the report’s modelling is based on ‘if we don’t do anything to improve access to general practice’.
 
‘But the Federal Government is already funding to increase GP training numbers and Medicare investments,’ he said.
 
‘The RACGP is training more GPs than ever before, GPs are providing more complex care.
 
‘Doing things to patients in isolation, without communicating with their GP, is the last thing patients or our health system needs.
 
‘This kind of lobbyist-led policy is not what Australians need.’
 
Meanwhile, Professor Trent Twomey, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s President, said the modelling should be a catalyst for the Federal Government to ‘make the most of community pharmacy’.
 
‘This modelling shows that empowering specially trained pharmacists to prescribe for appropriate conditions isn’t just good for patients – it’s good for the entire health system,’ he said.
 
‘It improves access, reduces wait times and delivers more than a billion dollars in annual savings.’
 
It comes just one week after an evaluation of the Management of Urinary Tract Infections by Community Pharmacists trial found that over the 28 days following the pharmacy consultation, 43.2% of participants had a GP consult.
 
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Pharmacy Guild of Australia pharmacy prescribing scope of practice