PHARMACY Guild executive director David Quilty says the reality is that Australia's health care professionals have been "practising with one hand tied behind their backs" because of the current silos of information which will be opened up through the My Health Record (MHR) system.
Writing in the Guild's fortnightly Forefront newsletter yesterday, Quilty noted a host of reasons why virtually every major peak health body supports the "opt out" My Health Record.
"They realise that it will provide health practitioners with significantly enhanced access to the information they need to treat their patients safely and effectively," Quilty said.
"Until now pharmacies have operated as health islands relying upon individual scripts, their own dispensing records and patients' personal recollections with no access to hospital discharge summaries or medicines dispensed by other pharmacies."
Similarly GPs, specialists and other health professionals including hospital staff have had no visibility of the medicines dispensed to patients and advice and support provided by community pharmacists.
"Is it any wonder that medicine adherence rates in Australia are in the vicinity of 50 to 60%, or that the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has identified that some 230,000 cases of medication misadventure cost the hospital system $1.3 billion annually?"
Quilty also said pharmacists and other health professionals should be encouraging their patients to actively use the My Health Record "as a tool that enables them to better understand their health and empowers them to take greater personal responsibility for their own medical needs".
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 26 Jul 18
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