PHARMACISTS should be treated as essential primary healthcare providers and given access to aged care facilities should Commonwealth and/or State Governments enforce a lockout of visitors, Pharmacy Guild of Australian National Vice President, Trent Twomey, believes.
Speaking at the Australian Pharmacy Professional (APP) Conference online, on Friday, Twomey, called on pharmacists to act judiciously when it came to conducting medication reviews for aged care patients, in response to a question about whether Home Medicines Reviews (HMRs) or Residential Medication Management Reviews (RMMRs) should be performed during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
"Firstly pharmacists just like your GP and your nurse are essential healthcare deliverers, so if there are restrictions on residential aged care facilities by Commonwealth and/or State Governments, pharmacists need to be acknowledged as essential members of the primary healthcare team," he said.
"If they need to visit for a clinical reason, they should be allowed to visit.
"[However] we do need to have a bit of common sense, and we do need to differentiate that a routine medication review, because that person just happens to be eligible because they haven't had one in for 12 months, or two years in the case of RMMRs, probably doesn't need to occur, and the pharmacist probably doesn't need to go in an do a routine review in the next six months.
"If there's an adverse medical event, if there's a transition of care between a residential aged care facility, between home, between a hospital, then yes I think it's appropriate that a pharmacist, as an essential healthcare professional goes in and does that visit."
However, aged group, IRT, CEO and pharmacist, Patrick Reid, suggested HMRs and RMMRs could be conducted online.
"[They] don't have to be face-to-face do they?" he asked on Twitter.
"Extend [the] MBS telehealth incentive to pharmacists, or is there some nauance I am missing?
"Pharmacy is the most ICT enabled health group - Get on with it."
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