Hospital expertise can drive pharmacist scope reform
The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) today welcomed the release of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report, while reiterating that hospital-led expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice is key to reforming and transforming Australia’s healthcare systems for greater sustainability and improved patient outcomes.
SHPA Chief Executive Kristin Michaels welcomed the report’s recommendations as enabling better integrated, collaborative, patient-centred care.
‘As the foundation for longer-term healthcare reform and investment, we are very happy to see the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report enshrining healthcare professionals working in a co‑ordinated, person-centred manner to their full scope of practice as part of its vision.
‘Hospital pharmacists have been collaborating in multidisciplinary team-based care models for decades, and have been pushing the boundaries of practice to support safe, effective and efficient pharmacist care.
‘Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting was first piloted in Australian hospitals in 2015, and is now a feature in most states and territories, as hospital pharmacists continue to demonstrate the benefits of team-based, collaborative pharmacist prescribing and medicine charting with medical colleagues.
‘Hospital pharmacists are also taking the lead in prescribing decisions, monitoring and adjusting dosages and medicines according to patient outcomes, which takes further pressure off our medical and nursing workforces.’
Ms Michaels says too many Australians continue to end up in hospital, when better integration and access to healthcare services could enable more care in the community.
‘The immediate and current pressure on our models of care is felt in every part of the system.
‘Australian and international evidence shows that pharmacists have a fair way to go to practice at their full scope, and the flagged reforms are an opportunity to properly develop pharmacists’ scope of practice to meaningfully ease system pressures in all settings of care, not just in community pharmacies, general practice and hospitals.
‘In our recent pre-Budget submission, SHPA advocated for pharmacists to be embedded into general practices further and for clinical pharmacy services to be on the Medicare Benefits Schedule to support collaborative medication management services for patients in primary care.
‘These reforms will reduce the demand on GPs and ensure recently discharged patients who are at risk of re-admission can access post-discharge care in a timely manner, closer to home.’
The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report also recommended local health system integration and person-centred care should be supported through through Primary Health Networks (PHNs) working with Local Hospital Networks, local practices, ACCHOs and pharmacies.
‘Transitions of care and post-discharge care has never been properly addressed by our patchwork healthcare system and the current wait times for GPs is a grave risk for patients who urgently need post-discharge care.
‘We look forward to transformation and funding that will meaningfully connect the disparate parts of our healthcare system together to ensure patients no longer fall through the cracks.
‘Many hospitals have initiated their own post-discharge pharmacist outreach services due to the gaps in Australian primary care, and even then communication to primary care pharmacists and GPs regarding these care episodes is lacking due to the differences in systems used by Australian clinicians and consumers.
‘On this front, we also look forward to the modernising and updating of My Health Record to become a real-time, fully-integrated digital health system, as flagged by Minister Butler earlier today.
‘Australians rightly expect a health system that places them at the centre and SHPA is ready to help make it happen.’