THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia is calling for health bodies to “back each other” to help ease the pressure on general practice and deliver a more efficient, responsive and patient directed health system.

Empowering all health professionals to work to the full extent of their training skills and experience will deliver a more efficient, responsive and patient-directed health system, said the Guild.

“Other primary healthcare providers such as pharmacists and nurses are here to help,” said Guild National President Professor Trent Twomey.

“We all want the same thing, which is to help our patients, and we can achieve more if we are all empowered to work to the full extent of our skills, training and experience.”

The call comes as the RACGP releases its latest Health of the Nation report.

Among the key findings reported were that GP appointments are getting longer and care is becoming more complex, but patient satisfaction is rising.

It also found that a vast majority (86%) of GPs manage conditions they would normally expect non-GP specialists to treat, largely because of cost and patients’ limited access to non-GP specialists.

While the report states that 99% of people said they were able to see a GP when they needed to, and more than half of the population could access urgent medical care from a GP within 24 hours, ABS data shows that 28% of patients reported waiting longer than they thought was acceptable to book a GP appointment.

Professor Twomey said that finding efficiencies across the healthcare system is essential, with community pharmacies able to provide safe, cost-effective and efficient treatment of everyday and long-term health conditions.

“We all want to remove inefficiency in the system – that’s why community pharmacies are stepping up,” Professor Twomey said.

“Early intervention by frontline healthcare professionals reduces complications and takes pressure off other parts of the health system, which then enables GPs and hospitals to focus on more complex or urgent cases.” KB

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