Media release

‘Continued dispensing' not in the best interests of patients

AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the passage of the National Health Amendment (Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement Initiatives) Bill through Parliament yesterday has the potential to seriously compromise patient care.

The Bill allows a practice known as ‘continued dispensing’, whereby pharmacists are allowed to dispense prescription medication without a valid prescription and without consulting a patient’s medical practitioner.

The Bill allows for continued dispensing of the contraceptive pill and cholesterol-lowering medications (statins).

Dr Hambleton said that the AMA strongly opposes continued dispensing because of the risks it creates for patient safety.

“A pharmacist has no way of knowing whether the patient’s medical practitioner intended to continue the medication, to adjust it, or to cease that treatment altogether,” Dr Hambleton said.

“Who will be responsible if something goes wrong after the pharmacist has given the patient more medication without review by the patient's doctor?

“We now have a situation where a health profession is able to expand its scope of practice outside the national registration arrangements, without any consideration of the patient safety implications.

“Dispensing prescription medication without a prescription also presents a fundamental conflict of interest – the pharmacist is both the prescriber and the dispenser.

“The Bill is effectively fixing a problem that does not exist.  GPs currently have arrangements in place to see patients who urgently need a consultation to renew prescriptions or get new prescriptions.”

Dr Hambleton said it is strange that at a time when US health authorities are requiring additional safety warnings on the labels of statins, Australian patients will be allowed to get statin prescriptions without having to see their doctor.

In 2008-09, PBS arrangements were changed to allow 12 months prescriptions for chronic medications.  For statins, PBS data show that, in 97 per cent of cases, medical practitioners prescribed only six months of medication because they prefer to review patients after six months, not leave the review for 12 months.


2 March 2012

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