Rural patients happier to seek advice

PATIENTS in rural areas are more willing to talk to and heed the advice of pharmacists about general health matters than those living in urban areas, research from the University of Tasmania reveals.

The new work analysed data from 17 publications comparing aspects of rural and urban community pharmacy practice in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK and South Africa, with Australian studies indicating pharmacists in rural and remote pharmacies were likely to offer extra services for indigenous people and herbal medicine, than those operating in cities.

The paper published in the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, noted that a South Australian study found rural pharmacists were more prepared to provide opioid substitution, and take on drug program clients compared to those working in urban pharmacies.

Rural pharmacies were also less likely to experience payment-related problems, thefts or disruptions, related to methadone clients than city-based pharmacies.

“Rural customers were more willing to talk about general health matters and ask advice from the pharmacist,” the authors said.

“The rural pharmacist initiated conversations more and talked longer than in urban pharmacies,”

MEANWHILE, new Federal Nationals MP for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, has called for a dramatic revamp of rural health services to ensure equity of access in regional Australia.

Webster stressed community pharmacy would have a key role in the National’s health policy.

“I’m very committed to doing whatever I can to improve the outcomes for those in Mallee,” she said.

“I’ve had and continue to have many conversations with pharmacists, GPs and healthcare providers to look at how we can ameliorate the current situation and I think pharmacy is a part of that story,” she said.

“For me it’s a multi-pronged approach, it needs to be at a structural level, it needs to be systemic and it needs to be board and operational.

“Allied health and nurse practitioners need to have access to a greater range of Medicare funding for the work that they do, which could assist in regional centres.

“We need to have a really robust conversation around healthcare providers and that includes the work of pharmacists.”