Pharmacy role in co-ordinated care
August 19, 2015
being a highly accessible and
frequently accessed element of
the primary healthcare system
in Australia, pharmacies have a
key role to play throughout the
continuum of care for patients with
chronic conditions, the Pharmacy
Guild of Australia has said in its
submission to the Primary Health
Care Advisory Group (PHCAG).
The traditional “set in stone”
concept of health practitioners
“owning” patients should be
displaced with patients being
empowered and given maximum
choice about where and how they
will receive their individual health
care, the Guild said.
This would be achieved by a
co-ordinated care model with
pharmacies as the first point
of contact: the place of triage,
advice and referral, health literacy,
risk assessment, point of care
testing, lifestyle management and
monitoring of chronic conditions.
An e-health patient record
system is critical to the provision
of a coordinated, collaborative
team-based approach to the care
of patients with chronic health
conditions, the submission argued.
The Guild also highlighted the
need to measure and report patient
outcomes in a way that is available
to the patient care team and
patients themselves, all of which
will help support the concept of
self-care, where pharmacists can
take a lead supporting role.
The submission emphasised
the central role of quality use of
medicine principles and linked it
to remuneration, adding that the
private health insurers should
focus on preventing and managing
chronic health conditions to reduce
hospitalisations.
See www.guild.org.au.
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