Victoria’s pharmacy program has the college worried it could produce a patchwork quilt experience of healthcare.
An expansion to Victoria’s Community Pharmacist Program has garnered eyerolls from GP bodies as the state government looks to further expand the scope of practice for pharmacists.
The latest addition to the program gives pharmacists the ability to prescribe and dispense for two new hormonal contraceptives along with a treatment for impetigo.
This comes after the state-initiated program rolled out last year, with further medications expected to be added in the coming year.
Resupplies of hormone replacement therapy without a prescription are expected to be the next addition to the program for 2026.
“Enabling pharmacists to provide a greater level of care for more conditions gives Victorians access to safe and effective treatment for more everyday healthcare needs at their local community pharmacy,” Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victoria Branch President George Tambassis said.
“We look forward to the first Victorian-trained prescribing pharmacists being able to do even more for patients in line with other Australian states and territories as Victoria’s program services expand further over the next two years.”
The RACGP has criticised the expansion arguing that it incentivises the fragmentation of care and reinforces the “narrative of GP inaccessibility”.
“There is no reduction in the demand on GP services in and around pharmacies where this service is,” RACGP Victoria Chair Dr Anita Munoz told The Medical Republic.
“We know from the Queensland example that once pharmacists started treating UTIs, there were actually more presentations to emergency departments with complications of UTIs than before the programme had started.
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“Suggesting that this reduces demand on general practice that has not been proven, and we actually continue to be really concerned that there’s harms that are occurring with this programme that are not being adequately documented or appreciated.”
The RACGP is of the opinion that the program’s definition of adverse events is too shallow, only accounting for instances of permanent harm or death.
This has been argued as a key signifier for how the program has prioritised “convenience and access as the only measure of success,” according to the RACGP.
The college also expressed concern that the program could lead patients to avoid GP visits.
“I think that’s a very dangerous message from a public health point of view, and quite irresponsible for a government to suggest that,” Dr Munoz told TMR.
“Because very few occasions when that person sees a GP is it just for a simple script, many things occur in that consultation that the government is essentially encouraging people to miss out on by not going to see their GP.
“From a public health point of view and a medical ethics point of view, I think that it’s problematic.
“The best thing for a patient is a GP and a pharmacist working well together, but not suggesting that one automatically becomes the other because of legislative change.”
