Pharmacist leaders are pushing for public hospitals to refer non-urgent patients to pharmacies rather than GP clinics for $14.49 ‘consults’.

The NSW government has been told that it could save up to to $440 million a year by paying pharmacists to treat “headaches, coughs and colds and earaches”.

The reform is being sold by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s NSW branch, which says of the 2.9 million emergency department presentations in the state each year, 331,200 presentations are “potentially transferrable to community pharmacy”.

“There is strong evidence that the clinical advice provided by community pharmacists regarding symptoms of minor illness results in the same health outcomes as if the patient went to see their GP or attended the emergency department,” it says in its pre-budget submission.