Pharmacy Daily | GPs have room to improve prescribing

MEDICAL groups seeking to curb the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) may want to focus on opportunities for their members to improve prescribing practices, rather than criticise non-medical prescribers.

Following a warning from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) that pharmacist prescribing pilots in Queensland and NSW were a threat to Australia's public health, Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, told Pharmacy Daily that AMR was a concern for all health professionals.

"AMR is a global problem that any health professional involved in the prescribing, dispensing and supplying of antibiotics must be mindful of," he said.

"The Queensland Urinary Tract Infection pharmacist prescribing pilot followed a clear protocol of antibiotic prescribing from the latest Therapeutic Guidelines and this approach will be taken forward in any pharmacist prescribing.

"It should also be noted that the current challenges faced of antimicrobial resistance in Australia have had little influence from pharmacist prescribing as it has only occurred since mid-2020 as part of the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot in Queensland (UTIPP-Q).

"The final report of the UTIPP-Q stated that data collected from Australian general practitioner clinics participating in the MedicineInsight study revealed that 52.2% of patients with influenza and 92.4% of patients with acute bronchitis were prescribed antibiotics despite no evidence demonstrating their effectiveness.

"Point being - there are a number of opportunities for improvement in antibiotic prescribing in Australia with existing prescribers.

"Pharmacists take their role as stewards of appropriate use of medicines including antimicrobials seriously and look forward to the opportunity to working collaboratively as part of the broader health professional team for patient benefit."

Meanwhile, with the Victorian State election coming up on Sat, Tassone said the Guild has sought pre-election commitments to expand pharmacists' scope of practice from both Labor and the Coalition.

"There have been constructive conversations... and we are hopeful that whoever wins Government this Sat will be supportive of implementing measures to ensure that pharmacists can practice to their full scope," he said.