DEMAND for pharmacists to be empowered to work to their full scope of practice would not be an issue if Australia's health system was working effectively, University of Alberta Department of Pharmacology Chair, Dr Ross Tsuyuki believes.
Speaking at Pharmacy Connect in Sydney earlier this month, Tsuyuki (pictured) described the failure to manage multiple conditions was "unacceptable" and urged Australia to follow in Canada's footsteps and legislate for pharmacists to be able to provide a broad range of services that would strengthen and complement existing care models.
"I don't think we'd be having this conversation if things were being done properly in the first place," he said.
"Is it acceptable that the vast majority of people with dislipidaemia are not treated to the recommended target values?
"Is is acceptable that only about 40% of your population have control of their hypertension?
"I don't find that acceptable."
Tsuyuki said that pharmacists were well placed to take on greater responsibility, noting research from Canada showed pharmacist prescribers were more meticulous in following guides than their colleagues in general practice, adhering to the guidelines 95% of the time, compared to 35% by doctors.
"I think the advantage that we have as pharmacists is that we're systematic," he said.
"We actually follow guidelines."
He added that pharmacists' meticulous nature means they bring distinct benefits to the delivery of health services.
"It is impossible for a physician to, if you say, 'show me all your patients with diabetes, show me which ones are controlled and which ones aren't', they have no mechanism by which to do that," he said.
"Whereas we can do that - you just run a list of people on metformin and you've got 2,000 people with guaranteed diabetes and then you can take it from there.
"So being systematic is our strength."
He added that pharmacists involvement in patient care had been shown to reduce physician burn-out, as another benefit of having pharmacists working to their full scope of practice.
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