THE Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has refuted modelling commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia that suggests its new 10-year vision, Towards 2035, will free up 6.5 million GP consultations (PD 13 Aug).

Speaking to newsGP, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told the publication he is “interested in seeing the Guild’s modelling”, and newsGP said it has requested it.

“It’s a big number, 6.5 million consults, and I’d be concerned that it’s coming at the expense of creating more complex work, which needs to be followed up later because people haven’t presented in a timely manner,” Dr Wright said.

RACGP Rural Chair Associate Professor Michael Clements concurred, expressing concerns that the modelling does not take risks into account.

“The Pharmacy Guild in no way shows any understanding of the risks of what they are suggesting, the harms that come from it, and the idea that somehow they’re going to save 6.5 million GP consults is farcical,” Associate Professor Clements said.

“It tries to assume that GPs deal with one thing at a time, that we only see people with a rash and that we don’t actually check their blood pressure, their Pap smear status, their flu vaccines status.

“It’s not in any way characterising general practice services in a fair or reasonable way,” he concluded.

The GPs also reiterated their concerns about risks to patients from pharmacy prescribing, with GPs then having to treat problems arising from pharmacist error. KB

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