Access the No.1 meds safety issue

STATE MPs in Queensland are being urged to actively lobby their Federal peers to secure an extension of Continued Dispensing beyond 30 Sep.

Speaking at a Queensland Health, Communities Disability Services and Family Violence Prevention Committee hearing as part of the Inquiry into the Queensland Government’s health response to COVID-19, on Mon, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National Vice President, Trent Twomey, stressed the need for emergency dispensing measures to be implemented on a permanent basis.

“The number one medication safety issue is people actually running out of the medicine, because of unnecessary redtape,” he said.

“This is not pharmacist prescribing... this is about pharmacists keeping Queenslanders on the medication that their prescriber has intended.

“Now whether it be in a first wave, a second wave, or whether it be indeed not in the pandemic situation, Queenslanders run out of their medication every week.

“In fact the Continued Dispensing arrangements, which have been expanded by the Commonwealth and enabled by the Queensland Government, saved 75,000 emergency department presentations and GP presentations between the months of Apr and May this year alone.

“That is a nationwide figure.

“It has zero cost to the taxpayer. “So what we would ask is that the Queensland Government call on the Commonwealth, because this is a Commonwealth initiative, to ensure that that particular mechanism does not expire on 30 Sep as it is currently scheduled to.

“This is something that you can do,” he told the hearing.

“It will cost you nothing, but puts the pressure back on the Commonwealth Government to ensure that Queenslanders will be able to receive their medication when they run out, from their local community pharmacy.”

Twomey’s message was supported by delegates from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Queensland Branch, with President, Shane MacDonald, highlighting the need for emergency dispensing mechanisms to support patients during personal crisis.

The Townsville-based pharmacist told the Committee that prior to the introduction of emergency dispensing measures he was not able to appropriately support patients who had come from other parts of Far North Queensland, and needed access to vital medicines.

“I had a patient [from Mackay] come into my pharmacy whose husband had been transported to Townsville Hospital, and the patient had run out of the blood pressure medication,” he said.

“All I was able to do during that time as it was pre-COVID, was give a three-day emergency supply, which is not beneficial to this particular patient being 3/400km away from home.”

MacDonald said had Continued Dispensing been enforced, he would have been able to provide a full supply of the medication, while the patient was going through a personal emergency.