Update on the Pharmacy prescribing forum outcomes

09 Jan 2019

The Pharmacy Board of Australia (the Board) will shortly be seeking the views of practitioners and stakeholders regarding the potential role of pharmacists in prescribing.

The Board has published a report about the outcomes of the pharmacy prescribing forum (the forum), which it hosted to help participants consider and discuss the need and opportunities for expanding pharmacist involvement in prescribing.

The Board also published a background paper and two other reports about prescribing commissioned by the Board on the Professional practice issues page.

The Board is finalising a discussion paper that will include the outcomes of the forum and a range of consultation questions to help the profession further explore its role in prescribing. These questions will cover topics including:

• models of prescribing that can be pursued by the pharmacy profession including the supporting evidence
• identification of gaps in evidence that may need to be addressed by the profession, and
• issues that need to be considered and addressed to assess the regulatory need for an endorsement for prescribing of scheduled medicines.

The discussion paper is intended to stimulate discussion and collaboration among stakeholders and highlight where further work is needed.

The discussion paper will be published on the Board’s website under Current consultations in early 2019 and will be distributed to stakeholders.

In the interim the Board encourages practitioners and stakeholders to provide any feedback or comments on the forum report published in October 2018, by emailing PharmBAfeedback@ahpra.gov.au.