Minor ailment, chronic disease screening pilots recommended.
The Victorian Legal and Social Issues Legislation Committee has released its report on the Inquiry into Community Pharmacy with a raft of recommendations including that a Victorian pharmacy immunisation pilot be established.
The report said the pilot should target adults and ideally start in time for the 2015 influenza season, following in the footsteps of the Queensland Pharmacist Immunisation Pilot, which would enter its second flu season in 2015.
The report also recommended the establishment of a number of pilots, including that a minor ailments scheme in rural areas for “selected and suitably trained” community pharmacists.
Another pilot recommended by the report for the Victorian government to consider was an evidence-based chronic screening and management program in selected pharmacies.
This would include a requirement for communication between the pharmacists and the patients’ GPs, it said.
The Department should commission research to look into the costs and benefits of placing non-dispensing pharmacists in general practice, with a view of establishing a pilot program, the report said.
For more, see tomorrow’s Pharmacy Daily.