Submission on Pharmacy Board consultation on endorsement for scheduled medicines for pharmacists
Our submission to the Pharmacy Board of Australia's consultation on endorsement for scheduled medicines for pharmacists highlights serious concerns about the Board's current proposal.
The Board's proposal would support pharmacists to prescribe Schedule 4 (prescription only) and Schedule 8 (controlled) medicines, where state and territory legislation allows, after completing an Australian Pharmacy Council (APC) approved program of study. Existing APC-accredited prescriber programs provide only 700–800 hours training, with just an estimated 120-150 hours of clinical experience.
Those figures pale in comparison to the extensive training, supervision, and experience doctors must have to diagnose a patient and prescribe the appropriate medication — more than 5,000 hours of real-world clinical experience.
The AMA is concerned by the scale and pace of the PBA’s proposals, and the serious risks they pose to patient safety. Some of the substances covered by these proposals, such as morphine and fentanyl, carry significant potential for misuse, abuse, and addiction. Doctors are extensively trained to mitigate those risks, possessing specialised knowledge and insight into a patient’s medical history and situation.
The PBA proposal fails to provide sufficient evidence for the significant changes proposed, does not provide an adequate cost, risk, and benefit analysis, and does too little to address concerns over conflicts of interest. These are fundamental flaws in a process that fails to recognise that high-quality healthcare is about much more than prescribing, and that extensive training and clinical experience is a fundamental part of ensuring a patient gets the care they need.
