Pharmacy Daily | RACGP still says ‘no’ to NQPSPP

GENERAL Practitioners are once again raising concerns about the controversial North Queensland Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot (NQPSPP), which is set to start late in 2023.

Queensland Health Minister, Yvette D'Ath, officially gave the trial the green light at the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Queensland Branch's annual Parliamentary Reception on Wed (PD 13 Oct), after months of planning.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Vice President, Dr Bruce Willett, told NewsGP that he was "very disappointed and concerned for patients" following the announcement, saying the trial would see North Queenslanders receiving "second-class treatment".

"Patients deserve to be diagnosed and treated by medically trained doctors," he said.

"These decisions are disappointing, particularly after we saw common sense prevail when the RACGP successfully advocated on behalf of patients for COVID-19 anti-viral agents to remain a Prescription-Only item."

Willett said the Queensland Government's decision appeared to be focused on supporting the Guild rather than patient care.

"This is an obvious conflict of interest to boost drug sales," Willett said.

"It is completely against the aims of the Commonwealth Government's medicines policy, which is supposed to protect patients by separating prescribing and dispensing.

"The Queensland Government should be dealing with the issues in its own hospital systems that impact ambulance ramping, instead of investing time and money in band-aid solutions like this -- which will ultimately worsen ramping.

"We should be addressing this by improving access to doctors."

Representatives of both the RACGP and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) walked away from the NQPSPP Steering Reference Group earlier this year, citing their concerns about patient safety (PD 14 Feb).

Guild Queensland Branch President, Chris Owen, has previously described attacks on the trial by the RACGP as "unhinged", saying the organisation's claims that the NQPSPP would "fragment care and lead to poorer patient health outcomes" were not backed by evidence.

"It's clear that the RACGP wants to control patients not produce better patient outcomes," Owen said.