The announcement reflects a worrying trend of ignoring the evidence, says AMA Queensland.
The Queensland government will make its two ongoing pharmacy prescribing pilots permanent, despite staying quiet on the issue pre-election.
According to a media release from the Pharmacy Guild, which preceded any official government announcement, the news was broken by the state’s minister for health and ambulance services Tim Nicholls during his keynote address at the Guild’s conference.
As the original ringleader for pharmacy prescribing – the claimed success of its UTI trial led all other states and territories to follow suit – Queensland has since implemented two pharmacy prescribing trials.
The Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot, which launched in April, allows pharmacists to prescribe for 17 different conditions.
The conditions range from acute conditions like reflux and shingles to chronic conditions like obesity management and support for smoking cessation.
In July, the Pharmacy Hormonal Contraception Pilot launched, allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraception to women and girls aged 16 years and older.
Both trials will become permanent. According to the Guild, this will be from 1 July.
Currently, over 135 community pharmacists have taken part in the pilots, delivering more than 1700 services.
Neither of the current pilots have been evaluated. The original UTI trial was only ever evaluated by the team that ran it.
According to the government, neither trial has incurred safety concerns.
Both trials attracted the ire of the AMA and the RACGP, with RACGP Queensland chair Dr Cathryn Hester labelling the move “a desperate grasp from the Pharmacy Guild to maintain relevance”.
In October, Labor promised it would make both trials permanent should it win, but the Liberals were quiet on the issue.
The AMA Queensland said the decision to act without evidence was “disappointing and dangerous”.
“Short-term political objectives should never over-ride safety or quality,” they said.
AMAQ president Dr Nick Yim said the announcement reflected a worrying trend of ignoring evidence.
“The Crisafulli Government was elected on a promise that they would listen to the experts, yet this decision is another in a growing list not supported by doctors or the evidence,” said Dr Yim.
“Independent evaluation is the only way we can ensure patients aren’t harmed through programs that prioritise politics over safety.
“We are concerned that even if the results of the evaluation show it risks patient health, the government will ignore them.
“This is what they have done by refusing to follow the evidence about our world-leading drug diversion, pill testing and alcohol harm reduction programs.
“It is also what they did when deciding to scrap the health workforce incentives we desperately need to attract the doctors and nurses required to run our hospitals and general practices.”
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Dr Yim said the move wouldn’t fix the health system.
“The program is also not the answer to overcrowded emergency departments and hospitals around Queensland – we need more staff, with proper qualifications, and better resourcing,” he said.
“We have actively worked with Queensland Health to develop collaborative care models that allow doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other allied health professionals to work in teams to safely care for patients, so it is disappointing to see a quick political fix overrule these efforts.
“Once again, we have been given another political announcement that does nothing to protect or improve the health of Queenslanders.”
This article was updated 4.30pm Friday 21 March 2025 with additional information provided by the Queensland government.
