Pharmacy plans for health checks may undermine GPs

THE Pharmacy Guild’s new “roadmap” for the future might be good for pharmacists but it’s not the solution for patients who could end up with fragmented care, the AMA has warned.

The document spells out the guild’s opposition to independent pharmacist prescribing, despite recent suggestions this might be its preferred direction. Independent prescribing has also been flagged  by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA).

Instead, the roadmap outlines a push to expand pharmacy health checks and screenings. These include INR, blood pressure, lipid and asthma monitoring.

Guild president Kos Sclavos said with the development of e-health records any results could easily be shared with GPs and patients could be referred to them.

“I would think this document gives comfort to doctors.” Mr Sclavos told MO. “In many areas it is simply what is occurring now… we are not going as far as others in our profession [who] are saying we should be prescribing – it is not saying we should be training super-pharmacists [to take] over.”

But Dr Brian Morton, chair of the AMA council of general practice, criticised the roadmap, saying pharmacist monitoring of chronic conditions could compromise care. “The proper place for monitoring is in general practice. It may well be done by a practice nurse but that is where the full [patient] record is available and [allows] the doctor to be involved directly,” Dr Morton said.

The proposal also garnered veiled criticism from the PSA. A PSA issues paper discussed roles for pharmacists in prescribing, immunising and monitoring patients with chronic conditions.

“The PSA’s [paper]... provides a whole-of-profession approach and debate, which unfortunately the roadmap will not do,” president Warwick Plunkett said.