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Medicines-sharing plan has ‘strong potential’: RACGP
A proposal to share the information by default to My Health Record could ‘significantly’ improve patient safety, the college says.
The RACGP says increasing access to medicines-related information could work effectively if details are well integrated into clinical workflows.
Reforms meaning telehealth-only prescribers will share medicines-related information to My Health Record by default could ‘significantly enhance’ patient safety – as long as they are well integrated into general practice, the RACGP says.
In a new submission to the Federal Government, the college has outlined broad support for the move, which is the latest phase in a suite of significant changes designed to improve the information and utility of My Health Record.
‘Incomplete or outdated medicines information is a well-recognised contributor to medication related harm, including avoidable hospitalisations, emergency presentations, and adverse drug events,’ the RACGP states.
‘When clinicians do not have access to a complete medicines history, risks include inappropriate prescribing, duplication, and harmful drug interactions.’
The college sets out how the move could strengthen safety by allowing better informed diagnoses and prescribing decisions, cutting adverse drug events as well as improving medicines reconciliation and transitions of care.
‘These benefits are particularly important given the rapid growth of online prescribing services and the associated risks of fragmented care,’ the submission states.
However, it also highlights possible challenges to the reforms, which are scheduled for 2027 and follow a raft of other My Health Record changes, including mandatory uploads of pathology and diagnostic imaging results.
The submission emphasises reforms should not replace expectations for health professionals to communicate directly, and raises concerns around a proposal to share clinical context and reasoning details on My Health Record’s Event Summaries section.
‘The lack of seamless integration with GP clinical information systems makes it difficult to easily locate specific, up-to-date information in My Health Record, leading to frustration and potential underutilisation of the system,’ the RACGP states.
‘Clinical value depends on how information is integrated into workflows and presented to clinicians.’
According to the college, using the National Prescription Delivery Service as well as clinical information software will mean details such as active ingredient, strength, dosage, repeats and prescribe and dispense dates can be shared.
‘These reforms must, therefore, be accompanied by the continued development of general practice clinical information systems and digital health infrastructure to ensure information is seamlessly integrated into the patient record and presented within GP workflows,’ the submission states.
‘There is limited value in creating standards-based, real-time interoperable data if the systems used by GPs are unable to display information in a way that supports safe, efficient clinical decision-making.’
The college also notes a current lack of notifications for GPs when significant new information has been added to a patient’s My Health Record.
It advises the Government to fund patient education to understand ‘the safety implications of restricting information in their My Health Record’, while calling for a nationally consistent real-time prescription monitoring framework. Such a measure would strengthen medicines safety and ‘reduce jurisdictional variation’, the college said.
Other recommendations include working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and multicultural health organisations, as well as other priority populations, to ensure changes do not increase barriers to care or digital exclusion.
‘Government should monitor the implementation of these reforms, including impacts on clinical workflows, software development costs, practitioner burden, patient privacy and unintended safety consequences,’ the RACGP states.
‘Evaluation mechanisms should be established to identify both benefits and emerging risks and support continuous improvement.’
The Federal Government consultation opened last month, with officials acknowledging online prescribing as an ‘established and increasingly visible component of healthcare in Australia’.
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