For World Pharmacists Day, the Guild has commissioned a survey about pharmacy services, but won’t release the full results.
The Pharmacy Guild has announced that “Australians have spoken” and want pharmacists to do more, but doctors say this does not constitute an evidence base.
Guild research, conducted by independent firm Insightfully, found pharmacists were trusted by Australians to provide health advice for common, non-complex conditions, and 77 per cent of people said they trusted their pharmacist for this type of health advice.
According to the survey – commissioned by the Guild – 80 per cent of survey respondents were comfortable with pharmacists providing a full range of vaccinations for all ages (including those that are free on the National Immunisation Program), flu testing and anti-virals and vaccines, as well as preventative medication for overseas travel.
The eight-minute online survey, developed by Insightfully, was completed by 2411 people aged over 18 across Australia and was designed to investigate public attitudes towards community pharmacists’ full scope of practice and what services they were comfortable receiving in pharmacies.
While the Guild has released the responses to 10 of the questions, a spokesperson told TMR it was not yet ready to release the full report yet.
AMA Queensland president Maria Boulton, who has voiced significant concerns about the Queensland UTI expanded prescribing programs, told TMR that opinion shouldn’t be used to drive policy if it compromised safety.
“When we’re looking at research, we need to ensure it’s independent, that it’s worthwhile doing when it comes to prescribing medications, and we need to ensure it’s safe,” Dr Boulton said.
“I think people confuse convenience with safety.
“Surveys should not be used as justification to change models of healthcare since they lack scientific rigour. What is needed is independent, randomised controlled trials that measure positive and adverse outcomes. It is the responsibility of government to ensure their policies are based on scientific research and that patients are not placed at risk.”
Dr Boulton said she was concerned about the inclusion in the survey of some diseases that could be serious.
One question, for example, asks “How comfortable would you feel receiving each of the following services from a community pharmacist for yourself or someone you care for?”, followed by a list including “Assessment and treatment of ear nose and throat conditions (eg middle ear infection or tonsillitis)”.
The general public, said Dr Boulton, wouldn’t necessarily know that only a doctor’s training and experience would allow them to differentiate between an upper respiratory tract infection causing a sore throat and a throat cancer.
In total, 68% of respondents said they were comfortable receiving services for these conditions.
When it came to the question of support for increased scope of practice, the Guild said they survey showed around 88% were in “total support”; around 42% “strongly support”; and around 47% “somewhat support”.
Only around 13% of respondents were to any degree opposed to an increase to pharmacists’ scope of practice. Between 5% and 6% said they didn’t know whether scope of practice should be increased.
The Guild said the survey also showed that 83% of respondents were aware that pharmacists are now offering more services in the pharmacy than they have done in previous years.
While the spokesperson did not rule out the Guild’s releasing the full survey report, it wasn’t released in full yesterday on World Pharmacists Day.
In late July, former AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid told a press conference he was concerned about the lack of transparency in development of the north Queensland pharmacy prescribing pilot.
“It’s completely secret,” Dr Khorshid said. “Early on, there was an attempt by the doctors’ groups to be involved and to actually be on the steering committee, but they were sworn to silence. And it was only because the proposal for the pilot was leaked that any of us know what’s actually going on here in Queensland.”
A start date for the pilot program has still not been announced.
