Board publishes report about Pharmacist prescribing forum

03 Oct 2018

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) has published a report about a forum it hosted to consider the need and opportunities for expanding pharmacist involvement in prescribing.

The Pharmacist prescribing forum report , a background paper and two other reports about prescribing commissioned by the Board are available in the Professional practice issues section of the Board’s website.

The day-long forum was an opportunity to explore, identify and articulate the roles of different stakeholders to successfully develop proposals about pharmacist prescribing that could be implemented and sustained as part of a broader range of health services to effectively meet the health needs of the community.

Stakeholders at the forum included hospital and community pharmacists, government health department representatives, professional association delegates, state and territory pharmacy authorities, consumer representatives, education providers, the Australian Pharmacy Council, New Zealand government advisers, pharmacists with firsthand experience as prescribers overseas, Pharmacy Board members and Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) staff.

The report outlines the next steps to develop proposals for pharmacist prescribing that can be implemented and sustained to effectively meet the current and future health needs of the Australian community.

To keep the conversation going, the Board is now developing a discussion paper that will include the outcomes of the forum and a range of consultation questions to further explore including:

• models of prescribing that can be pursued by the profession including the supporting evidence
• identification of gaps in evidence that may need to be addressed by the profession, and
• issues that need to be considered and addressed to assess the regulatory need for an endorsement in relation to scheduled medicines.

The Board encourages interested stakeholders to continue discussions and to work together to further progress potential pharmacist prescribing models.

The proposed discussion paper will also highlight where further work is required and is intended to stimulate discussion and collaboration among stakeholders.

It will be published on the Board’s website under Current consultations in coming months and will be distributed to stakeholders.

The Board welcomes any feedback or comments on the forum report published today which may inform the development of the discussion paper during the coming months. Feedback can be provided by email to PharmBAfeedback@ahpra.gov.au.

For more information

• Visit www.pharmacyboard.gov.au under Contact us to lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 9275 9009 (overseas callers)
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