NSW Budget missed opportunity: PSA

PHARMACISTS recruited by NSW Health, as part of a State Budget announcement, should be allocated to different areas of practice and “not just hospitals”, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) believes.

Responding to yesterday’s 2019/20 State Budget announcement, PSA NSW Branch President Professor Peter Carroll, said the State Government needed to invest in harnessing the accessibility of community pharmacy, to reduce pressure on hospital services, particularly outside of Sydney.

“Rural and regional Australia deserve better access to health services and medicines,” he said.

“Community pharmacists are accessible and have the skills and expertise to create better access to medicines and health services, particularly in these regional areas.

“There needs to be a focus on models of care outside the hospital system to better service the needs of these communities.”

With the Budget set to deliver a surplus, Professor Carroll expressed disappointment that the Government had not found the money to fund a real time prescription monitoring system to combat the cost of hospitalisations stemming from medicine-rated harm.

“Medicine safety is a health priority and it is disappointing to see that there is no investment by the NSW Government in a real time prescription monitoring system in NSW, which will aid clinical decision making and provide an opportunity to identify and appropriately manage patients misusing specific prescription medications.

“All states, except NSW and WA, have either implemented or set strategies to introduce a real time monitoring system. However NSW continues to fall further behind despite experience internationally and locally that when such systems are implemented they have the desired effect in reducing harm.”