MOVES to expand the scope of pharmacists risk fragmenting the primary care system and have the potential to damage doctor/patient relationships, Australian Medical Association (AMA) West Australia President, Dr Andrew Miller (pictured) warns.
Responding to Thu's (PD 02 Aug) announcement that pharmacists have been approved to provide MMR, dTp and meningococcal vaccines to patients aged 16 and older, Miller told Pharmacy Daily, the medical profession appreciates the work pharmacists do in cooperation with GPs at the coalface, but expressed concerns that cross-over in the roles performed by the two professions could lead to worse outcomes.
"GPs realise they do not set the scope for pharmacy," he said.
"They do however, provide the diagnostic capability and work closely with, and are affected by, what pharmacists do, particularly where that replicates work commonly done by GPs at the moment.
"If a lot of vaccination is done in pharmacy it does eventually chip away at intervention opportunities that GPs need.
"Talk of triage, diagnostics, investigation and more in pharmacy means GPs are also thinking of how their practice might change, so they can avoid fragmentation of care and worse outcomes."
Miller said more inter-professional dialogue was needed to support the development of the general practice and pharmacy models.
"If we are to offer patients choice of primary health care givers, some doing similar things, then GPs will be wanting to work with pharmacists in different ways in future," he said.
"[Having a] close relationship with a community pharmacy, employment of embedded pharmacists and dispensing of a range of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme items and more from within a general practice are all options we will explore.
"Having a role in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) will be important for the medical profession given the more integrated nature of some of these proposals, and that is what we will be asking for, as well as the flexibility in those arrangements.
"This will allow new modes of pharmaceutical and care delivery to the community, for the improved convenience and safety of patients."
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