Pharmacy Daily | PSA rejects ‘one-sided commentary’

CRITICISM of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia's (PSA) push for emergency dispensing to be implemented permanently, is damaging to inter-professional relationships, PSA National President, Dr Chris Freeman (pictured), believes.

Responding to allegations made by former Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Expert Committee - Quality Care Chair, Dr Evan Ackermann, that extending Continued Dispensing would be damaging to patient care (PD 06 Jul), Freeman said the push to extend the measures was justified as patients had been able to retain access to vital medicines during recent crises.

"It is because of the Continued Dispensing arrangements, that 75,000 Australians have benefited from safe, secure and timely access to medicines when faced with a global pandemic, bushfires and social isolation," he said.

"These Australians may have gone without these medicines, posing real and imminent harm to their health.

"We need a health system which is agile and able to respond to emergencies like these and we need all health professionals to come together as a team to support each other in caring for the community.

"Pharmacists are experts in medicines -- ensuring safe and quality access to medicines -- Continued Dispensing is just one of the many tools pharmacists use as part of a holistic care team.

"PSA has robust standards and guidelines supporting pharmacists to make evidence based and clinically appropriate decisions around continuous dispensing.

"It is now time to make Continued Dispensing arrangements permanent.

"PSA will not get drawn into a back and forth with an individual, sitting on the sidelines with a tainted view on the pharmacy profession.

"One-sided commentary such as this is doing nothing to progress patient care and are damaging when pharmacists and GPs on the ground are building collaborative relationships."

Freeman also rejected Ackermann's claim that the PSA was "asleep at the wheel" during the recent Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA), and had failed its members and the public by not pushing for 60-day dispensing, and alleged the PSA "fell over backwards for the business demands of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia".

"The 7CPA agreement supports the vital role of pharmacists in primary care delivering better health outcomes for patients," Freeman said.

"PSA worked closely with the Department of Health and Minister for Health over 18 months on this forward-looking 7CPA that will achieve genuine and positive outcomes over the term of the agreement."