ACCREDITED pharmacists are being urged to make the most of the Federal Government's decision to fund follow-up consultations for Home Medicines Reviews (HMRs) and Residential Medication Management Reviews (RMMRs), and demonstrate the value the profession can deliver.
Speaking during the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia's latest COVID-19 webinar on Wed, Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy (AACP) Board member, Shane Jackson, said pharmacists needed to make sure the expansion of service, the introduction of telehealth and the doubling of Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) funding, is met with clear evidence of the impact they are having on medicines safety.
"Pharmacists have been given an extraordinary opportunity to do follow-up reviews and with telehealth reviews," he said.
"What I would be saying is that we need to use them judiciously.
"We need to use them appropriately and we need to make sure they are efficacious.
"We need to make sure, especially in aged care, that our QUM and RMMR services are impactful, and I encourage people to try and collect data as well about system improvements in their environments so we can show that what we're doing on the ground, the affect is undisputable."
Jackson stressed that pharmacists providing services to aged care need to ensure that their reviews are influencing practice.
He also encouraged community pharmacies that may have put their MedCheck services "on-hold" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to consider offering the services over telehealth platforms for patients who might need to be "checked in on".
"When it comes to telehealth, make sure that's used judiciously and appropriately," he said.
"We may well have them on an ongoing basis, if we can show that what we do does have a really positive impact."
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