Tasmanian chemist set to prescribe medications without the need for a GP

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Tasmanian pharmacists will soon be given more powers providing more vaccines and prescribing urinary tract infection medication. But medical groups say a plan for them to do more in regional parts of the state, and in aged care, is still a way off.

Transcript

00:00 As work starts on a $22 million facelift for the Royal Hobart Hospital's pharmacy, big

00:08 changes are on the way to give community pharmacists more power.

00:12 They'll soon be able to provide more vaccinations.

00:16 Pharmacies will have stock of National Immunisation Programme vaccines sometime in early January

00:21 and be ready to put jabs in arms sometime around the middle of January.

00:26 And from February, pharmacists can prescribe medication for urinary tract infections.

00:30 It will happen for women between the ages of we think 18 and 65 and first presentation

00:37 uncomplicated with nothing else going on.

00:42 The Government says a proposal for pharmacists to prescribe to regional and aged care patients

00:47 is also close.

00:48 That will start to roll out in January but they need to make sure that all those rules

00:54 and regulations and protocols are in place.

00:57 But medical groups say there's still lots of work to do.

01:01 Legislation has to change, the logistics have to be worked out and the processes of educating

01:07 the pharmacists in their role and educating GPs on how to collaborate with pharmacists.

01:13 Proposals like these can often spark fights between pharmacists and doctors but they insist

01:18 they're both on board with the regional and aged care changes as long as they're delivered

01:23 in the right way.

01:24 We're certainly not trying to take work away from GPs because we know there's plenty of

01:28 work around but what we're trying to say is that pharmacy can do more and we can do more

01:32 in collaboration.

01:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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