Doctors claim govt’s pharmacist diagnosis plan is illegal, while Guild says it ‘will help out EDs’

Doctors claim a state government plan to allow pharmacists to diagnose and treat serious conditions like heart failure is illegal while at the same time the Pharmacy Guild is backing the move.

The state’s chief health providers are at loggerheads over the plan to allow pharmacists to diagnose and treat serious conditions, with the Pharmacy Guild saying the move would ease emergency department clog but doctors claiming the plan is “illegal”.

Pharmacists would diagnose and treat 23 serious conditions like heart failure and asthma under the scheme proposed by the Queensland Government. The North Queensland Pharmacy Scope of Practice Trial would be implemented in 37 Local Government Areas.

The pilot would also give the green light for chemists to prescribe the oral contraceptive pill — a move that is outlawed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

“If community pharmacists and other primary health care professionals could practice to their full scope, then the incidence and management of chronic diseases could be better managed, preventable hospitalisations and non-urgent ED presentations reduced and better health outcomes delivered for Queenslanders.” the Guild’s Queensland president Chris Owen said.

Steven Miles

“Some of the ED demand is often for conditions that could have been prevented or better managed within a local primary healthcare setting,” he said.

The Australian Medical Association of Queensland has withdrawn from the steering committee advising on the trial with President Chris Perry concerned about misdiagnosis and the undermining of the management of antimicrobial resistance.

Former AMAQ president, gynaecologist and obstetrician Assos Prof Gino Pecoraro told The Courier-Mail that the pilot proposal to prescribe contraceptive pills was illegal.

“Despite the Therapeutic Goods Administration already making pharmacist prescribing of oral contraceptives outlawed, our government thinks it knows better and wants to allow lesser trained professionals pretend to be GPs or other specialists without the extensive training that doctors must go through. The arrogance displayed by our politicians in ignoring the expert opinion of the TGA is very concerning,” he said.

Asthma, type 2 diabetes, heart failure and middle ear infections are among the conditions the pharmacists would diagnose.

The Guild has emphasised the shortage of primary health providers in regional, rural and remote areas.

“More than 1200 community pharmacies offer safe and easily accessible primary healthcare across Queensland. 234 of those located in rural towns, remote and very remote communities,” he said.