Premier must consult on NQ experiment
The North Queensland pharmacy prescribing experiment is not a health solution, it's a political promise made behind closed doors.
AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid today called on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Health Minister Yvette D’Ath to visit First Nations communities in North Queensland before imposing their dangerous pharmacy prescribing experiment on them.
Dr Khorshid said it is disgraceful that the Premier and the Health Minister have failed to consult with communities about the proposal to allow pharmacists to undertake the equivalent of three weeks of online training to do the work of GPs, who train for 10 to 12 years.
“Under the North Queensland experiment, pharmacists will be allowed to diagnose, treat, prescribe and sell medications for 23 serious conditions including asthma, diabetes and lung disease without any medical training or oversight,” Dr Khorshid said.
“Many of these conditions disproportionately affect First Nations peoples, who deserve access to the same high quality healthcare as every other Australian.
“The Queensland government’s claim is that this will solve the issues of access to healthcare in regional and rural communities- despite the fact that there is a huge shortage of pharmacists in North Queensland. But this isn’t a health solution, this is a political solution.
“It is against the strongly stated views of all expert medical groups in Queensland- but the Premier is sticking to her promises made behind closed doors- implying that that generous political donors have more impact on policy in Queensland than professional organisations.
“The Queensland Parliament has before it substantial changes to national law regulating the health professions in the interests of patient safety but at the same time the Queensland government is going it alone, ignoring the national regulatory bodies that protect patients and proposing a dangerous trial that is being drawn up in secret.
“I visited the Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service in Yarrabah, just south of Cairns, where doctors, nurses, pharmacists, public health workers, Aboriginal health workers and Queensland Health employees work together to address the health needs of their community in a model that works.
“They deliver care in a culturally safe and appropriate manner in consultation with the community. A community pharmacist is embedded in the health centre.
“I was shocked to be told by these hardworking GPs and allied healthcare workers that not only is their community targeted as a site for the pharmacy prescribing trial, but that the Premier and Health Minister have not been to Yarrabah in this term of government, if at all.
“No-one has bothered to ask the patients, doctors and allied healthcare workers in Yarrabah, or anywhere else in North Queensland, if they need or want the prescribing trial.
“This is an issue of concern to every doctor, no matter their geography or their specialty. The AMA will be launching a national survey of doctors to seek their views on this proposal- because it is a pilot in name only.”
AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton said patient safety would be put at risk by the North Queensland experiment.
“This proposal is based on the alleged success of the urinary tract infection (UTI) prescribing trial, which we know harmed women,” Dr Boulton said.
“There was no way for women who took part in the trial to independently report any adverse outcomes, and no way for doctors to report their concerns without knowing the name of individual pharmacists involved.
“Virtually every woman who sought advice from a pharmacist under this scheme was prescribed antibiotics, and one in two pharmacists who took part said they would have found it difficult not to prescribe antibiotics after charging a patient a consultation fee.
“AMA Queensland has raised concerns about this scheme with all levels of government and all sides of politics.
“The UTI trial harmed women’s health but is being implemented across Queensland anyway and now the Queensland government is proposing to experiment on the people of North Queensland. Instead of harming primary care and the health of Queenslanders, we call on the Premier to invest in high quality team based primary care that we know is the model for the future. ”