ABC Sunshine Coast transcript: Abortion pill access

Transcript - Annie Gaffney, ABC Sunshine Coast
11 July 2023

ANNIE GAFFNEY: From next month there'll be one less layer of red tape to access the abortion pill. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has removed requirements for doctors and pharmacists to have special certification to prescribe medical abortions. Dr Nick Yim is the Vice President of the Australian Medical Association of Queensland and he also owns a medical practice in Hervey Bay. Nick, good evening to you. The regulatory shift addresses some of the recommendations of the recent Senate inquiry into reproductive health. How welcome is this news from the AMA's perspective? Is it good news as far as you're concerned? 

DR NICK YIM: Good evening and always a pleasure to be on here tonight. It is very good news for women, particularly for those living in regional and rural Queensland, because we do know that there has been challenges, challenge to access medical termination obviously in the regional rural towns and obviously this is the next big step to help those women. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: So how different will the new regulatory system be from what is currently in place? 

DR NICK YIM: As you mentioned, it is a removal of some of the red tape and obviously some previously required certification for the medical practitioner to prescribe and likewise additional certification for those pharmacists to dispense. So I guess it makes it a little bit easier. But at the same time, we do like to encourage the medical practitioners and also the pharmacists to continue the education because medical termination of pregnancy is not just a simple pill. It is challenging for the practitioners and also the women who go through it. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: So how easy does it make it for someone to get a medical abortion if they want to? 

DR NICK YIM: Currently the women who choose to go through a medical termination of pregnancy, firstly, they need to find a practitioner that is certified and then they need to find a pharmacist that is certified to dispense that medication. And as you can imagine, in rural and regional towns, sometimes they might not be a medical practitioner that is currently allowed to serve prescribed medication, so they often rely on online services. That can be quite challenging because they don't have that direct rapport, as they would say, with their regular GP. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: So what is the process? What will we be moving to essentially? 

DR NICK YIM: What we'll be moving to from August - medical practitioners, any doctor provided they are comfortable to prescribe the medical termination tablet. They can do so provided that they meet their standard regulatory requirements. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: And what about the dispensing of the medication? Because there is a restriction on who can dispense it at the moment. What will happen there in terms of pharmacists? 

DR NICK YIM: Any pharmacy can dispense those medications moving forward. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: Are there any issues that you can foresee with this change? 

DR NICK YIM: When there's increased access, I think there's potentially unintended consequences So this is a challenging time. So it is often a brave decision for women to go through a medical termination of their pregnancy and it can't be taken lightly. So what I guess encourage my medical colleagues is we do need to go through the process of counselling. So go through the steps and process of what the woman will go through when they go through the medical termination of pregnancy and make sure it's the right decision for them. And at the same time they might have physical symptoms, but at the same time they might also have short-term emotional symptoms and also potentially long term emotional symptoms. So we need to discuss through. So it's not a simple prescription not going in there and asking for a tablet. It is actually a many process to go through. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: So it's looking after someone's mental health and emotional wellbeing. 

DR NICK YIM: We all know now we're moving off the time. So I guess healthcare, it's not just about the physical health. It also combines holistically that involves the psychological health as well. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: So essentially women will be able to access this from a number of prescribers. Will that also include telehealth doctors and online visits to doctors and nurse practitioners? 

DR NICK YIM: Yeah, absolutely. So it would be some doctors already are providing the services and we're very, very grateful to them in regional rural towns by telehealth So many women are accessing that service already. So obviously that shouldn't change moving forward, but it does increase the access availability. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: And as you mentioned, nurse practitioners do well in terms of a medical termination using this medication. Up until what stage is it legal for a woman to choose that as a means of terminating a pregnancy? 

DR NICK YIM: Within that first trimester, so the TGA, they have approved an application I guess, for up to nine weeks, which is 63 days of gestation. So obviously we need to confirm that as medical practitioners and prescribers via ultrasound. So if this is something that a woman is considering, please see a healthcare practitioner, a doctor early so we can organise the ultrasound scans early and when do these changes kick in? Nick Just to be clear, these changes come in on the 1st of August, but at the same time, I guess patience is always key with any new changes The medical practitioners, the doctors, the nurse practitioners, the pharmacies, we still need to also educate ourselves to get our head around the legislation. So we don't want to guess, be patient with our colleagues as a sense that they might not be on top on the 1st of August. But we are putting education to all our doctors, nurse practitioner and pharmacists. 

ANNIE GAFFNEY: Dr Nick Yim, thanks so much for joining us and telling us about this change. Appreciate your time. Always a pleasure. Thank you, Annie. Dr Nick Yim is the Vice President of the Australian Medical Association. He's a medical practice owner in Hervey Bay.