Revealed: The training pharmacists will undergo to prescribe independently of doctors
It is an 11-page document drawn up by Queensland Health and, in its way, it is a blueprint for a revolution.
It details the training that pharmacists will undergo to independently diagnose, prescribe and dispense medications for a long list of acute conditions under the North Queensland pharmacy prescribing trial.
Should it prove a success, the trial could rapidly open up the scale and ambition of pharmacy prescribing across Australia — particularly as state premiers beyond Queensland already see pharmacists as a fix for their GP access woes.
Pharmacists in the North Queensland trial will charge patients between $20 and $25 for consults lasting less than 15 minutes, $30 for consults from 15 minutes to less than 30 minutes, and $55 for those over 30 minutes.
