If the Country Liberal Party wins the election next month, it plans to introduce a 21-condition pharmacy prescribing pilot across the Top End.
The Northern Territory’s Country Liberal Party has unveiled a proposal for pharmacists to start treating up to 21 conditions, including asthma and hypertension, within months.
Of course, it would have to win at the election on 24 August first. And the RACGP has already fired off a warning letter opposing the move.
Current governing party Territory Labor has also announced that it will look to expand the role of community pharmacists, but Health Minister Selena Uibo has stopped short of definitively stating what this would include.
The only hints as to what Labor is planning are that it would likely extend to additional vaccines being available in community pharmacy and may include access to treatments for acute nausea and mild skin conditions.
The opposition has not been so coy.
As a starting point, it has pledged to allow pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics for UTIs within its first 100 days in office, during which time it will also get the ball rolling on expanded pharmacy powers for up to 20 other conditions.
These would include school sores, shingles, minor wounds, asthma, swimmer’s ear, travel vaccines and hypertension.
The NT opposition health minister Bill Yan said he expected a number of the services to be available within the next 12 months, despite training for some conditions taking the bulk of that time.
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro said the goal was not to replace existing primary care services but described the plan as a “game changer” that would save time and money for patients.
“This means more convenient access to world class medical treatment and avoids having to make an appointment to see the doctor or visit an emergency department,” Ms Finocchiaro said.
The RACGP said it had written to the Country Liberal Party to warn against the proposal.
“Patients don’t present with a diagnosis, they just have symptoms, which might be any number of conditions,” said RACGP NT chair Dr Sam Heard.
“For example, the symptoms of a UTI are similar to symptoms for pregnancy, STIs, cancer and undiagnosed diabetes.”
He was particularly concerned with the potential for inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics.
“When this happens, simple infections can become life threatening,” Dr Heard said.
“This is not something we can risk in the Northern Territory.”
Dr Heard encouraged the next territory government to prioritise high quality general practice care over convenient “bandaid solutions”.
