Political promises must not override patient safety

This proposal has emerged as part of a political commitment to upskill paramedics. Decisions about prescribing and the scope of practice must be driven by clinical evidence and patient safety, not political promises.

Politicians are not clinicians, and healthcare policy cannot be built on shortcuts to cover years of underinvestment. 

We are seeing increasingly clear signs that governments are prepared to take risks with patient safety rather than address the underlying pressures in the system.

Prescribing is a serious clinical responsibility that relies on extensive training and years of experience in diagnosis, pharmacology and managing clinical risk. It depends on continuity of care and access to a patient’s full medical history. 

Continued expansion of scope without equivalent training standards and strong clinical governance risks weakening safeguards, white anting established models of care, and further fragmenting care across an already fractured health system. 

This is not a reflection on paramedics, who are highly skilled and valued. It is about recognising that prescribing sits within a clinical framework that requires training and systems that cannot be replicated through a policy announcement. 

There is still no clear roadmap from the Department on how these services will be integrated, funded, or evaluated. Without that clarity, new models’ risk being piled onto an already strained system without improving access or outcomes.

At the same time, general practice continues to face immense funding pressure while urgent care clinics appear to receive open-ended investment tied also to political commitments. That imbalance raises even more questions about political priorities.

Patients deserve confidence that every prescribing decision is made within a framework that prioritises their safety. 

Governments must work with the clinical community rather than push ahead with reforms that introduce unnecessary risk.>>>ENDS