The Pharmacy Board of Australia has commenced work on establishing a registration endorsement for pharmacists to support ‘a consistent, safe and nationally coordinated approach’ to prescribing.
Health ministers have requested that the Pharmacy Board of Australia develop an endorsement for pharmacists who have undertaken prescriber training, a move the Pharmacy Guild says will set the stage for nationally consistent pharmacist-led prescribing.
Registration endorsements for specific areas of practice already exist; the Psychology Board of Australia has nine areas of practice for which a registered psychologist may be endorsed, while nurses with additional training can apply for a nurse practitioner endorsement.
The pharmacist prescriber endorsement will enable pharmacists who have completed a prescribing qualification approved by the board to have their registration endorsed as being “qualified to administer, obtain, possess, prescribe, sell, supply and/or use scheduled medicines”.
While the endorsement will standardise the qualifications required to prescribe, it is not a case where pharmacist prescriber training programs have been entirely unregulated; the Australian Pharmacy Council is already funded to accredit pharmacist prescriber education programs.
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Introducing the pharmacist prescriber endorsement is just the next step in this ongoing endeavour.
As part of the work to introduce the endorsement, the existing APC standards will be reviewed again to “ensure they remain suitable to support the implementation of an endorsement for scheduled medicines”.
“We know community pharmacists are already delivering these services successfully in specific states – this enables better planning, mobility and clarity for practitioners,” guild president Professor Trent Twomey said.
Professor Twomey said that pharmacist-led prescribing will reduce pressure on GPs and emergency departments, ultimately leading to healthier communities.
“With appropriate training and governance, pharmacist prescribing will mean more patients able to access convenient, local care for everyday health conditions,” he said.
A public consultation paper will be released following the development of a registration standard.
