Pharmacy Daily | RACGP continues attacks on UTIPP-Q

MOVES to enable pharmacists to work to their full scope of practice though the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot - Queensland (UTIPP-Q) put convenience over safety, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) claims.

In its latest bid to sway Queensland policy-makers to abandon plans to extend the services community pharmacists can offer patients, the RACGP Queensland Branch Chair, Dr Bruce Willett, called on the State Government to release an independent evaluation report produced by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) about the trial.

Speaking to the RACGP's NewsGP publication, Willett questioned the independence of the as yet unpublished evaluation, noting that the Pharmacy Guild of Australia "appears to have knowledge of the report that others don't".

"It is very much time to release the details of this report," he said.

"I think there is a public safety issue at hand here."

Willett added that comments from pharmacy stakeholder groups highlighting customer satisfaction with the trial suggested the study was "really all about convenience, rather than safety or efficacy".

"If this pilot was conducted at a supermarket where people could just go in and buy [the antibiotics] then the measures would be even more strongly positive," he said.

The RACGP's criticism of the UTIPP-Q comes days after the Australian Medical Association Queensland Branch (AMAQ) released the findings of a survey of its members showing that 240 patients who had participated in the trial have subsequently presented to GPs and specialists with complications stemming from misdiagnoses by pharmacists (PD 09 May).

Representatives of the Queensland branches of the Guild and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) have defended the trial.

A Guild spokesperson told Pharmacy Daily that the AMAQ was attempting to "scare women about a safe and effective treatment option for an uncomplicated UTI", with "totally false claims".

While PSA Queensland Branch President, Shane MacDonald, said the fact that patients had been referred to other practitioners highlighted the success of the trial (PD 10 May).