A new proposal is pushing for rural pharmacies to be prioritised for expanded scope, but access doesn’t always mean equity.
The Remote and Isolated Pharmacist Association of Australia, which describes itself as a “reactivation of a previously existing rural organisation”, released a policy proposal on Monday which called for a commitment to boosting and upskilling the MM5 to MM7 pharmacy workforce.
It’s an idea that is not necessarily popular with rural generalists, who have long argued that rural Australia gets used as a testing ground for new models of care.
More specifically, the RIPAA proposal is asking for prioritised training in areas like pharmacist-led prescribing, chronic disease management, vaccinations and Home Medicines Reviews.
RIPAA president Fredrik Hellqvist, a pharmacist based in Tasmania, said he recognised the important role that GPs play in rural healthcare and that the proposal was intended to “complement” GP care.
“Pharmacists in rural and remote communities play an indispensable role, often acting as the primary healthcare providers for their regions,” said Mr Hellqvist.
“Yet, the support they receive does not match the unique challenges they face every day. Many patients in these areas struggle to get timely GP appointments, which can delay access to critical healthcare.
“By focusing on boosting and upskilling the rural pharmacy workforce, we can unlock greater access to essential healthcare services for some of Australia’s most disadvantaged populations.
“This isn’t just about pharmacy – it’s about health equity and ensuring rural Australians aren’t left behind.”
ACRRM president Dr Rod Martin told The Medical Republic that innovations made under the banner of patient access often overlooked other factors.
“Lots of these things that are put in as trials never have any analysis,” the Armidale rural generalist said.
“There’s never any attempt to capture the data about things like antibiotic use and misdiagnosis, so the challenge of that is they keep on being rolled out, and there’s more and more and more medications or diseases where pharmacists do a short course in something, and all of a sudden they’re able to prescribe in that area.
“And the big-ticket cost at the end is going to be the loss of integration and the loss of coordination.”
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Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr RT Lewandowski told TMR that it “makes a lot of sense” to prioritise rural pharmacists for upskilling, but only as part of a team.
“I recognise that rural pharmacists are under supported, and they don’t even have the same access that we do for upskilling and for maintaining their skills,” the north Queensland-based rural generalist said.
“I think it makes sense to support that as part of a team.
“Now, I don’t think that a GP can replace a pharmacist, and likewise, I don’t think a pharmacist can replace a GP.
“I think we’re already a team, and I think that we should work towards making sure that’s true.”
At the same time, Dr Lewandowski said, pharmacist upskilling could only ever partially solve Australia’s workforce crisis.
“A lot of these [proposals] are built with the presumption that there are these people twiddling their thumbs somewhere, and that’s not the case,” he said.
“If somebody’s twiddling their thumbs in a rural environment, I want to know about it – because then the service could be utilised differently.
“But nobody is. Nobody’s sitting out there with nothing to do.”
Despite the similar names, RDAA and RIPAA are not affiliated.
