DOCTORS’ groups have demanded an “immediate reversal” of a plan endorsed by every Australian health minister that could give non-medical health practitioners the right to prescribe medications without supervision.
The AMA and RACGP attacked the draft Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway after the Standing Council on Health, a body made up of the state, territory and federal health ministers, backed the Health Workforce Australia-developed blueprint at a meeting in Tasmania earlier this month.
“The pathway sets out the steps required for a health professional to achieve safe and competent prescribing of medicines within their scope of practice,” the council said in a communiqué.
Doctors’ groups oppose one of the three models proposed, which would give non-doctors autonomous power to prescribe where the health professional has been formally educated, trained and authorised to prescribe in a specific area of clinical practice.
“Although the autonomous prescriber may prescribe without the approval of another health professional, they recognise their role in their healthcare team and ensure adequate communication occurs between team members to support the person receiving the medicine,” it said.
AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton said it was “disturbing” that health ministers had endorsed the plan without consulting the profession first and called for the autonomous non-medical prescribing model to be scrapped.
“The autonomous model…shouldn’t exist. The more autonomous prescribing there is, there more misadventure there’s going to be, it doesn’t matter who does it,” he said.
“In the interests of patient safety, non-medical prescribing must be carried out within strict collaborative care arrangements. That will protect the public.”
The college said it was “alarmed” that ministers had “not considered the consequences on patient safety and quality” and that the pathway “poses a real risk to patient safety”. President Dr Liz Marles said non-doctor prescribing “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”.
HWA acting CEO Ian Crettenden said the health ministers had “taken a crucial step to improving access to heath care” but HWA would “work with governments, educators, accreditation bodies and the national boards to address key issues such as regulatory practice, education standards, accreditation and training”.
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