THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia has come out firmly in favour of the government's Health Care Homes initiative - at the same time stressing that it's not seeking any additional funding from the program's budget for pharmacy.
In a statement issued yesterday, Guild president George Tambassis said the HCH plan, which will see patients with chronic and complex conditions managed on an ongoing basis by designated GP practices, "provides the opportunity to move towards a more integrated and coordinated approach.
"In order for the HCHs to succeed in delivering better, more cost effective health outcomes for patients with complex needs, it is imperative that their community pharmacy is an integral part of the primary care team," he said.
Tambassis said patients most likely to benefit from the HCH trials are highly likely to be reliant on scripts & other pharmacy medicines.
"If their adherence with these medicines is not regularly monitored and assessed by their community pharmacist and any issues are not expeditiously identified and assessed, it is unlikely that the broader health benefits of their primary care plans will ever be realised," he added.
Tambassis said it will be important that local GP practices in the ten Primary Health Networks taking part in the trial include their local community pharmacies in the teams, using established 6CPA programs such as DAAs, Staged Supply, HMRs and MedsChecks to provide coordinated care.
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