The $100m Labor has already committed to take pharmacist-led prescribing national wasn’t among the Pharmacy Guild’s asks.
Advanced Pharmacy Australia, formerly the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, used its pre-budget submission this year to recommend that pharmacists be allowed to write PBS prescriptions in the context of collaborative prescribing trials.
By the organisation’s math, pharmacist PBS prescribing would be cost-neutral and, in fact, would be “likely to result in cost savings by optimising existing resources and reducing inefficiencies in care delivery”.
“Enabling pharmacists to prescribe medicines under the PBS in general practice and aged care settings will reduce bottlenecks in care delivery allowing patients, particularly those in aged care or managing chronic conditions, to access essential, subsidised medicines in a timely fashion without unnecessary delays, improving continuity of care and overall health outcomes,” Advanced Pharmacy Australia’s submission read.
It also requested $1.4 million to expand a pharmacist-led prescribing model which has been trialled in tertiary care, into primary care.
This would see “pharmacist prescribers” recruited into GP pilot sites, where they would be collaborative prescribers.
“The doctor diagnoses and together with the pharmacist and patient/carer, sets shared initial treatment decisions and treatment goals, while the pharmacist selects, monitors, modifies, continues or discontinuous the pharmacological treatments as appropriate,” the peak body for hospital-based pharmacists said.
“Both the doctor and the prescribing pharmacist share in the risk and responsibility for the patient health outcomes achieved in a collaborative practice model.”
Despite the fearsome reputation of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia when it comes to advocacy and its apparent enthusiasm for expanding scope of practice, its official pre-budget asks this year were relatively modest.
Related
Labor has already pledged $100 million in funding to go toward two national trials of pharmacist-led prescribing for UTIs and the oral contraceptive pill.
Women with concession cards will be able to consult with a pharmacist at no out-of-pocket cost, and pharmacists will be able to write PBS-eligible prescriptions if they determine that a medicine is needed.
The trials start in 2026.
The Guild has been vocally supportive of expanding pharmacist scope of practice to include prescribing for certain conditions, but its four pre-budget asks this year related to dose administration aids, opioid dependence treatment, university places and dispensing fees for a subset of medicines.
On dose administration aids, the pharmacy owners’ group called for dedicated funding to go toward medication management in aged care facilities, which would help streamline resources.
For the opioid dependence treatment community pharmacy program, the Guild wants to see the fee for supplying oral medications increased from $5.66 to $7.40.
It also recommended increasing the Commonwealth funding for pharmacy courses in a way that would not raise student fees, and to align dispensing fees for highly specialised s100 drugs with the fees for general schedule s85 drugs.
In short, none of the Guild’s asks were particularly ambitious.
Of course, the Pharmacy Guild has already been able to secure funding and policy pledges from the federal government via the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, which was signed in June last year.
Through the 8CPA, the government has already committed to a cool $26.44 billion in funding for community pharmacy.
Some of the key measures this funding were increased fees for 60-day dispensing, which came to $2.11 billion, a 30% increase in funding for community pharmacy programs and a requirement for the government to “formally consult” the Guild on any health policy that may affect community pharmacy.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia had loftier ambitions for this year’s budget.
It asked for annual indexation, rural loading and after-hours loading for pharmacist-led services, reimbursement for pharmacists who participate in multidisciplinary case conferences and a doubling of the WIP payment for GP practices who support onsite pharmacists.
The latter proposal would see GP practices eligible for up to $130,000 in additional finding each year, which would cost the government about $49.3 million per year, assuming a 10% take-up among general practice.
