PHARMACISTS need to be adequately funded to take advantage of opportunities to play a greater role in the promotion of quality use of medicines (QUM), the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) believes.
Marking the seventh annual Meds Safety Week, which runs until 13 Nov, PSA National President, Dr Fei Sim, called on the Federal Government to look to provide pharmacists with access to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), to fund a range of pharmacist-led services.
Sim noted that evidence showed that close to half of the 400,000 emergency department presentations across Australia each year were the result of medicine-related problems, which pharmacists could help prevent.
"The use of medicines is the most common intervention in health care," she said.
"The safe and appropriate use of medicines transforms people's health for the better.
"Pharmacists already play an important role in medicine safety, but there are opportunities for us to be doing more.
"Pharmacists, as medicine safety experts, should be embedded wherever medicines are used to reduce the risk of medicine-related problems.
"All pharmacists, regardless of their practice setting, continue to play an increasingly important role in ensuring the QUM.
"As pharmacist [led] services continue to expand, we need to ensure that consultations are appropriately funded based on time and complexity, possibly through the MBS.
"This is something that PSA has been calling on the Federal Government to explore to ensure that access to expert pharmacist advice remains available to all Australians."
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 09 Nov 22
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 09 Nov 22
