Axing this essential GP service makes no sense

Alas, federal funding for the exemplary Drug and Therapeutics Information Service ended on the last day of June.

I am devastated, as I know other colleagues of mine are.

I value academic excellence made accessible to frontline GPs.

I value the opportunity to have interactions with a truly devoted team of experts on the quality use of medicines who have refined their skills over decades.

I value all the personal qualities that made each interaction such a positive experience.

I feel this latest cost-cutting measure is totally counterproductive, akin to what RFK Jr is doing in the US to destroy the CDC and public health.

It is well documented that medication errors are a major cause of hospitalisation, yet here we see the dismantling of the very service helping to prevent such mishaps and circumvent the need for hospitalisation.

It is a program that I believe should be expanded to every state and territory.

I see the end of the Drug and Therapeutics Information Service (DATIS) as another assault on the health ideals we need to prioritise.

But I also have hope…

Hope that the powers that be can recognise retrospectively the value of a program that provides real high quality, timely support to GPs.

Hope that another funding body can pick up the pieces and permanently employ the DATIS family, reconstituting its operation.

Hope that others can appreciate that long-term meaningful professional relationships between GPs and their colleagues in the pharmaceutical world sustain both parties and greatly enhance the quality of work that each performs.

We need morale boosters, and DATIS has been mine for over 30 years of our association.

We need to recognise that human intelligence and human exchange are the basis of our very human roles as GPs.

In the meantime, here is the letter I wrote to my colleagues at DATIS — my first group love letter.

I believe it needs to be disseminated nationally, to honour the achievements of a unit that has worked tirelessly, supporting GPs in South Australia.

Love letter to DATIS

To all the wonderful people at DATIS,

I am so grateful to each and every one of you.

You have so enriched my professional life with your dedication, enthusiasm, friendliness and devotion through the timely service provided by DATIS in improving the safe use of medication.

The excellence of your service cannot be praised highly enough.

But it has been so much more than that. Through our long association, there have been lovely personal relationships that have developed and have been so meaningful in this digital and ever-more impersonal world.

Sitting alone in general practice as I do, you cannot know how much you have meant to me — that option to telephone you during any workday and get immediate guidance, to have access to your wisdom and assistance, and an opportunity to discuss all the complexities and uncertainties faced daily in general practice.

I never felt alone or isolated with you, my devoted team, behind me.

Getting to know you all has been such a privilege.

I am so saddened by the recent developments and the dismantling of your wonderful organisation of highly skilled individuals who make such a difference in supporting GPs.

I am wishing you each, so wonderful and talented, the best as you seek and find new opportunities to contribute with all your amazing skills.

I write this with tears in my eyes, as I truly cannot imagine the bleak road ahead without you.

I see the dissolution of DATIS as yet another step in the demise of general practice.

Thank you again for everything.

I hope that you know you have a special place in my heart, always, and please keep in touch.

Love and best wishes,

Pam Rachootin

Dr Pam Rachootin is a GP in Adelaide, SA.

Love letter to DATIS

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