The " Prescription " Obstacle !

We are well aware that many country towns and the suburbs of our biggest cities have a long waiting time to access a doctor.  This shortage of general practitioners has caused some country areas to provide positive incentives to try and attract medical services to setup in their area but in Australia  doctors seem to prefer to practice in the wealthier suburbs.

Even when the number of GP's offer bulk billing there are still many people who rarely see a doctor and rely for their health needs on the local pharmacy.  The training for both doctors and pharmacists is similar and the only difference is that pharmacists do not charge for that advice.

Pharmacists are now calling for the right to provide GP-like services for which the public can claim rebates on the Medicare system.   In particular, they want to provide vaccinations for people who intend to travel overseas, prescribe the contraceptive pill  and treat common complaints such as urinary infections and erectile function.

The medical profession will fight this proposal tooth and nail.  Doctors hold a honoured place in our society and they claim that if pharmacists want to be doctors they should go to medical school.  Doctors claim that they have the diagnostic skill to detect underlaying causes and refer patients to the next tier of specialists who treat those diseases.  Anything less would put patients at risk.

All this boils down to that emotive word - competition.   Doctors claim a stranglehold on providing medical advice and this is cemented in place by law, but that impregnable wall has already been breached.  Pharmacists have been granted the right to prescribe and administer flu shots as a necessity to get the public immunised before the peak of the flu season.

It is surprising that the contraceptive pill is still an item that needs a prescription.  In most other countries it is now an " over the counter " item but here we still insist that women see a doctor and that is fast becoming an unnecessary experience.   Similarly, if we intend to travel overseas the vaccinations necessary relate to the country to be visited and this is public information.

Ideally, the pharmacist should be the conduit between the public and their doctor.  The pharmacists training enables them to detect symptoms that indicate the need for medical intervention and they urge such people to consult a doctor.  Often, it is such advice that results in doctor adverse people finally getting the medical help that they need.

There seems a certain inevitability about this reform.  We are seeing areas which lack doctor availability and medical services which have past the need for a doctors signature on a prescription.. Good medical practice will be achieved by putting such supply in pharmacists hands.