Premier Jeremy Rockliff has unveiled a double-header of prescribing law reforms.
As the year wraps up, the Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has announced a new wave of reforms to how prescribing functions in Tasmania.
An expansion of pharmacist scope was part of this announcement, with Tasmanians now able to access hormonal contraception from credentialled pharmacists.
This is not unexpected; strengthening the pharmacy scope of practice reforms was a pre-election commitment from the Tasmanian Liberal Party.
“We’re supporting pharmacists to expand their services so Tasmanians can receive the care they need, sooner,” Mr Rockliff said.
“Pharmacists with the right training can now assess, initiate and continue hormonal contraception, meaning Tasmanian women have more convenient access to the services they need, closer to home.
“This builds on our recent reforms allowing pharmacists to treat urinary tract infections and resupply the oral contraceptive pill.”
The RACGP has been critical of this push, and predicted in June that it would not significantly boost patient accessibility and would only contribute to the fragmentation of care.
“It’s not really something that’s required, given that we’ve had such a strong interest in the GP training program,” RACGP Tasmania chair Dr Toby Gardner told The Medical Republic
“We’re really growing our number of GPs on the ground for the first time in Tassie in the last 20 years.
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“The access is not really an issue anymore, and yet it seems to just sort of fall on deaf ears.”
However, the government announcement also came with unanimously welcomed announcement that interstate prescriptions could now be dispensed in Tasmania.
Reforms to the Poisons Amendment Bill are expected to come into effect in early 2026 after passing through parliament earlier this month.
This change has been embraced by the RACGP, which said it could have the potential to bring more residents to Tasmania without worry about carrying over prescriptions.
“Patients have had to scramble to find a doctor appointment, go through their full medical history again just to get something they’ve been on for 15 years reissued,” Dr Gardner told TMR
“The poisons acts being amended to allow interstate prescriptions to now be dispensed in Tas is a good thing and hopefully it’ll bring more tourists to Tassie as well.
“Harmonisation of the poisons act around Australia is something that all the health ministers are looking toward … and it would make sense we are all the same country, and it would just free up people moving between jurisdictions.”
The RACGP also said it could provide a welcomed workaround for specialist accessibility in the state that could assist with interstate multidisciplinary care.
“That just means that we’re all sort of part of the treating team, and that’s what we’re trying to do, have these sort of teams looking after people nowadays,” Dr Gardner told TMR.
“We rely on specialists who are outside of the state, because we’re a small state, and [there are] some specialists we don’t have readily accessible and available. “This means that we can continue to utilise interstate specialists.”
