NEW data showing that 44% of Australians wait four hours or more in emergency departments (ED) has highlighted the urgent need for health professionals including pharmacists to work to their full scope of practice, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has argued.
The number of people who have been seen to within four hours in emergency has slumped from 70% in 2018/19 to just 56% in 2022/23, according to the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
There were 8.8 million presentations in 2022/23 - up from 8.79 million in 2021/22.
"In the five years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, presentations to public hospital emergency departments steadily increased by an average of 3.2% per year," AIHW spokesperson Clara Jellie said.
"However, in more recent years the numbers have fluctuated and increased at an average annual rate of 1.3% over the most recent five years," she revealed.
In 2022/23, 65% of patients were seen on time for their urgency category, representing a fall from 67% the year prior.
Pharmacy Guild National VP Anthony Tassone said the statistics are a powerful example of why pharmacists and other health professionals should be enabled to work to their full scope of practice.
"Pharmacists are widely acknowledged as the most accessible health professionals in the country," Tassone said.
"If we are enabled to work to our full scope of practice, we will be able to diagnose and treat more Australian patients, minimising the number of people who otherwise are unnecessarily clogging our emergency departments and GP surgeries," he explained.
The comments come just a week after the Guild backed calls by physiotherapists and other allied healthcare professionals to work to full scope of practice (PD 29 Nov).
Pharmacists in other countries are empowered to do more for their patients than their Australian counterparts, Tassone highlighted.
"In the UK for example, pharmacists and the government have reached a new agreement where they have widened their scope to treat and diagnose an additional seven health conditions.
"The benefits of this are projected to see an additional 2.1 million people going to their pharmacist each week instead of clogging up hospitals and doctors' surgeries.
"Unfortunately, there is enough illness in Australia to keep all health professionals busy." JM
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