THE Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) and Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) have thrown their full support behind all recommendations of the Deloitte Pharmacy Programs Cost Effectiveness Review's Final Report, which was released by the Australian Government at the end of last year.
Undertaken by Deloitte on behalf of the Australian Government, the review makes eight recommendations for reform of pharmacist-led programs to improve cost effectiveness and sustainability.
Among the key recommendations proposed are the removal of caps to providers of Home Medicines Reviews (HMRs), the introduction of increased program flexibility, alternate funding mechanisms to incentivise service provision in rural and remote communities and the introduction of effective evaluation frameworks which include quality outcome indicators.
''Removing unnecessary caps and modernising program rules will help ensure consumers can access timely, high-quality medication reviews, while preserving professional judgement and enabling care to be tailored to individual patient needs," said AdPha President Associate Professor Tom Simpson.
"We support a robust monitoring and evaluation framework that is proportionate, draws on existing data and focuses squarely on quality and patient outcomes - not volume for volume's sake."
Assoc Prof Simpson welcomed the review's recognition that funding must reflect the complexity, time and location of care.
"Scaled remuneration is essential to support rural communities and patients with complex needs, and must be implemented without eroding existing rural funding," he said.
The PSA's Associate Professor Fei Sim applauded the report's recommendations, saying they are "vindication for Australian pharmacists who have been calling out for reform to these programs for many years".
"It recognises measures such as HMR caps mean consultant pharmacists are unable to make a full-time living from this life-saving work," she said.
"Every recommendation is important, and PSA encourages the government to implement them all.
"This report provides a blueprint for programs reform," Assoc Prof Sim concluded.
PSA's pharmacy agreements lead negotiator Associate Professor Shane Jackson concurred, noting the report provided a clear pathway to reform.
"The review's recommendations reinforce PSA's long-held position on pharmacist program reforms," he said.
"We will be using the upcoming budget processes to progress reforms through the First Pharmacy Programs Agreement, which have now been backed by the government's own review.
"These reforms need to happen, and they need to happen as soon as possible," Associate Professor Jackson concluded. KB
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