Pharmacy Daily | Substitution plan ‘almost unworkable’

PROPOSED solutions to extend pharmacists' scope of practice enabling therapeutic substitution of medications without approval from the prescriber are "almost unworkable", Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President, Dr Chris Freeman, believes.

Speaking during the PSA's weekly COVID-19 webinar last night, Freeman flagged concerns over the Therapeutic Goods Administration's (TGA) planned protocols for the measure, which was announced by Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt (PD 01 Apr), as part of the Government's response to the COVID-19 crisis.

"While we have welcomed the initial announcement from the Minister around the ability for therapeutic substitution for both the strength and form [of prescribed medications], unfortunately the way in which the proposed solution will be implemented is almost unworkable for the pharmacy profession," Freeman said.

"That includes protocols being issued by the TGA for pharmacists to follow, and multiple forms to be filled out.

"This is well within the scope of practice for a pharmacist.

"It is a very sensible solution to the medicines shortages issue and we are working now to ensure the implementation of this is done in a way which does not add to the workload of the already busy pharmacy workforce."

Freeman also noted PSA members' concerns around the pace of legislative reforms at State and Territory levels, to enable the use of digital prescriptions following the Federal Government's announce that it would permit the use of electronic scripts.

"I am pleased to see that we've had some States acting quickly in catching up [with this]," he said.

"They are Victoria and Western Australia, and NSW has also announced that it will start from Fri with this as well.

"We are working with our State and Territory branches to advocate on behalf of the profession around making sure that those States which have gone and updated legislation, that the implementation is as smooth as possible, and for those states that are still lagging behind, we are advocating on a daily basis to make sure that they're moving in the right direction."