Time for truth on NQ pharmacy trial
The Queensland Government and Health Minister must come clean about their plans to put North Queenslanders at risk with sub-standard healthcare for everyone living from north and west of Mackay.
“It is clear that Health Minister Yvette D’Ath is determined to press ahead with a dangerous experiment that will allow pharmacists in North Queensland to diagnose, prescribe and sell medications for 23 serious conditions with no medical oversight, after just 120 hours of unsupervised online training,” AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton said.
“GPs train for 10 to 15 years to be able to diagnose conditions like asthma, diabetes, respiratory disease and heart conditions. This cannot be replaced by three weeks of online learning.
“This dangerous experiment was supposed to start in June this year. Yet we still have no advice from the state government on when this trial is starting, which pharmacies are taking part, and how GPs and other specialists can report any complications they see.
“We are extremely concerned as this is based on the urinary tract infection (UTI) prescribing trial, which put women’s health at risk by allowing pharmacists to diagnose and sell antibiotics with no medical oversight.
“The government’s own evaluation report of the UTI trial found that 270 women needed follow-up treatment. Almost 97 per cent of women were prescribed antibiotics whether they needed them or not, and one in two pharmacists said they would have found it difficult to charge women the $19.99 consultation fee without also selling them antibiotics.
“The UTI trial is now being made permanent, despite these disturbing findings, and the Pharmacy Guild – a major donor to both sides of politics – is saying the UTI trial will become national.
“The Guild – which represents pharmacy owners, not working pharmacists – has just advertised a two-year position for a full-time media manager to spin the state government’s North Queensland experiment.
“Doctors’ groups have not been told how these trials will work, including any processes for reporting complications or ensuring all patients are followed up.
“Patient safety is being put at risk and the Queensland Government must ensure that patients and doctors are fully informed about the scope of this experiment and how to report adverse outcomes.
“Every peak medical organisation in Queensland withdrew from the steering committee overseeing this dangerous experiment when we became aware of its scope. Since then, we have been cut out of any information about how and when this trial will be rolled out.
“Patients and doctors deserve to be fully informed about this trial. Patients need to be informed that they are taking part in an experiment and doctors need to know when this experiment will start. We expect to get answers at next week’s Queensland Health Workforce Summit.”