The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is alarmed that Australia’s Health Ministers have signed off on new prescribing pathways allowing non-medical health professionals to autonomously prescribe medications.
In a move that poses a real risk to patient safety, the RACGP is calling on Health Ministers to immediately reverse its decision in approving Health Workforce Australia’s (HWA) Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway (HPPP).
The RACGP, in its submission to HWA on the HPPP earlier this year, stressed that patient safety and quality care must underpin any development in prescribing and is concerned at the lack of evidence supporting the safety of non-medical prescribing*.
Dr Liz Marles, RACGP President said the RACGP has long argued against the inclusion of independent non-medical prescribers in delivering a best practice model of care to all Australian patients.
“Prescribing by non-medical practitioners should only occur as part of a medically led team-based model of care where prescribing occurs under the direction and supervision of a medical practitioner.
“This arrangement will ensure compliance with best practice, prevent the occurrence of adverse events and maintain continuity of patient care.
“By endorsing HWA’s guide, the Health Ministers have not considered the consequences on patient safety and quality,” said Dr Marles.
The RACGP has been involved in active consultation with HWA and is shocked that it put forward the autonomous prescribing model to the Health Ministers.
“This prescribing model is not aligned with integrated general practice teams and does not provide information to referring doctors as a routine medical communication standard.
“The model effectively jeopardises the known benefits of having a continuous and coordinated patient care framework,” said Dr Marles.
Backed as one solution to curb access issues to medicine for communities facing medical workforce shortages, the RACGP reaffirms its long standing position that role and task substitution is not the answer to workforce shortages, especially given the health workforce shortages in all health professions.
The RACGP will continue to advocate against a prescribing system that permits multiple prescribers at the risk of fragmented care and potentiated polypharmacy.
* Sadiq Bhanbhro, Vari M Drennan*, Robert Grant and Ruth Harris Assessing the contribution of prescribing in primary care by nurses and professionals allied to medicine: a systematic review of literature BMC Health Services Research 2011, 11:330 www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/11/330