EASING restrictions on the number of Home Medication Reviews (HMRs) a provider can conduct on a monthly basis will not resolve medicines safety issues in aged care facilities, Pharmacy Guild of Australia NSW Branch President, David Heffernan warns.
Responding to the Federal Government's decision to increase the monthly cap on HMRs from 20 to 30, Heffernan said the move would not address issues and recommendations included in the Aged Care Royal Commission's interim report.
"Without in any way disputing the merits of HMRs, the fact is that increasing the monthly cap on HMRs from 20 to 30 per provider will be of negligible benefit to residents of aged care facilities," he said.
"Let's be clear - whatever problem the HMR cap is intended to address, it is certainly isn't a problem identified in the Royal Commission.
"The fact is that only about 10% of HMR providers in Australia go anywhere near reaching the monthly cap of 20 services...70% of providers only do between one and five HMRs per month, so lifting the cap is immaterial to them, and will not lead to any significant increase in services for aged patients."
Heffernan urged the Government to focus on amending patient eligibility criteria for Residential Medication Management Reviews (RMMRs), to incorporate patients in residential respite and transitional care, provide funding for pharmacist involvement in case conferencing arrangements and focus on compliance and audit activity on RMMR services.
He added RMMR program rules should be amended to allow for more than one service provider to be contracted for a single facility to provide patient choice and enable RMMRs to be conducted locally and more responsively to patient need.
It is believed this is under active consideration by the Department of Health.
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