This press release from the Pharmacy Guild appeared a few days ago:
Rushed introduction of electronic prescriptions will cause unnecessary chaos
30 April, 2020
The planned fast-tracking of electronic prescriptions will cause unnecessary chaos and be a backward step for patient care at exactly the wrong time, according to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
The imminent fast-tracking of the electronic prescriptions (FTEP) is part of the Government’s COVID-19 National Health Plan.
On behalf of the community pharmacists working in thousands of pharmacies across Australia, the Pharmacy Guild cannot support the introduction of a measure that will impose further significant disruption at a time when community pharmacies are already under intense pressures to support their patients during COVID-19.
The proposed fast-track introduction of the ‘token’ model for electronic prescriptions is the wrong move at a time when the system and pharmacy network is clearly not ready and experiencing unprecedented challenges.
The untested system, under which prescriptions would be conveyed by ‘tokens’ sent to patients by text or email, presents unnecessary risks to patient care and will impose unwarranted disruption to the administrative and clinical workflow of both prescribers and community pharmacies already having to adjust to new arrangements in support of the COVID-19 National Health Plan.
The COVID –19 emergency has already seen significant rapid changes introduced to address the need for self-isolation and telemedicine, including prescriptions being sent as a photo image by email, facsimile and in some States text message, directly from prescribers to community pharmacies. The high number of prescriptions being dispensed through these telehealth measures demonstrates that patients are continuing to have ready access to their medicines without the need, at this stressful time, for a token-based electronic prescription which would severely test pharmacy systems and cause confusion and potential medication misadventure for many patients, particularly the elderly and chronically ill.
From the pharmacy patient perspective, the electronic prescription token system is not suited to patients on multiple medications and will cause further disruption and confusion, especially for those patients not familiar with the required technologies to manage their multiple ‘tokens’. These patients rely on their community pharmacy to help them manage their complex medication regime, not devices and multiple text messages or emails.
This is why the Guild has recommended, through the Electronic Prescribing National Change and Adoption Working Group, that the alternative model known as the Active-Script List (ASL) be prioritised as it best supports a patient’s access to their medicines via electronic prescribing and best enables the community pharmacy to support this access. Under the ASL system, the patient’s ‘active’ prescriptions can be authorised for access by the patient’s chosen community pharmacy without the need for a token or multiple tokens to be self-managed by the patient.
While the Guild will continue to be a strong supporter and contributor to the national electronic prescriptions project, it recommends the FTEP (Token) be removed from the COVID-19 National Health Plan in favour of the ASL model, and that maintaining patient access to medicines during COVID-19 is achievable by the appropriate resourcing and funding of the current COVID-19 measures.
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Here is the link to the original release:
The concern becomes clearer when one sees this:
E-prescribing stop-gap 'will lead to more medicine errors'
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia says the fast-tracked system will be confusing to many patients
1st May 2020
The Federal Government’s electronic prescribing system being launched this month will lead to a surge in medication errors because it is confusing and will leave patients bewildered, say pharmacists.
Under the system GPs will be able use their practice software to write electronic scripts which are then automatically uploaded to a government portal to be accessed by any pharmacy in Australia.
The system, introduced as part of the COVID-19 response, will also send patients a web link, known as a ‘token’, via email or SMS, which they can forward to a pharmacy for dispensing and delivery.
It’s been backed by the AMA, which has said it's necessary to ensure patients access prescribed medications after telehealth consults.
But the Pharmacy Guild of Australia says the fast-tracked solution is deeply flawed, claiming it is untested and relies on patients learning how to send the tokens to their pharmacist.
The system will be especially confusing for patients on multiple medications, who will need to keep track of multiple tokens provided over different consultations, the guild said.
More here:
More clarity emerges from this as well.
Medication management firm MedAdvisor adds new features
Melbourne-based ASX-listed medication management platform MedAdvisor has added a telehealth extension to its GP Link service, the company says, adding that home delivery services are available in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
In a statement on Monday, the company said about 1000 pharmacies were now offering deliver to MedAdvisor app patients and it had fielded some 3000 delivery requests covering about 9000 items.
It said it had recently accelerated the Pay in Advance and GP Link services so that a broader range of patents could now access home delivery and telehealth services. The Pay in Advance feature is now available for nearly 80% of the network.
"The events of COVID-19 have delivered unprecedented challenges globally," chief executive Robert Reid said.
"In response, MedAdvisor has fast-tracked its development roadmap to launch home delivery and telehealth services to assist patients, pharmacies and doctors through these challenging times.
More here:
What this is all about is having the doctor or patient decide where a script is to be filled which the Guild sees as anathema!
Have a teleconsultation, then the doctor prescribing with the script directed to a pharmacy where it can be delivered / pick-up from is just to convenient and user friendly for the Guild!
It hands just too much control to the enemy (the docs) – which is why the AMA back the idea and the Guild hate it!
More to come I suspect! As Robert Reid suggested in another article on the issue eventually the ASL and token solutions can probably co-exist!
David.
5 comments:
What we need is a National Digital Health Strategy so everyone can see what needs to be done, when its supposed to be done and all stakeholders can work collaboratively to make it happen.
Where do you think we can get one of those? I'm surprised we don't already have one.
Just waiting on a national health strategy. Then we will understand the services required to meet the value propositions and who will be cared for and who will need to fall through the budgetary cracks in such a way as not to impact people’s sense of morality.
@10:37 PM. Tim Kelsey published the National Digital Health Strategy when he was CEO of the ADHA. You obviously haven't read it. The government has been using it as the basis for moving Digital Health forward. Surely you don't want another strategy! More than one will just create untold confusion!
You obviously haven't read it.
I have read it. It bears no relationship to anything that is currently happening now and which needs to happened now.
It is a dead strategy. It is stone dead. It has gone to meet its maker. This is a late strategy. It's a stiff. It's bereft of life. It's rung down the curtain and gone to join the choir invisible.
This is an ex-strategy.
We need a proper strategy but are unlikely to get one from this bunch of muppets.
The most prescient commentary on the ADHA's National Digital Health Strategy received excellent coverage in Sept 2017 - almost 3 years ago. Nothing has changed, Ian Colclough's comments till ring true today.
https://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/blog/3968-opinion-can-the-digital-healthstrategy-
achieve-its-insubstantial-goals
Opinion: Can the Digital Health Strategy achieve its insubstantial goals?
Written by Ian Colclough on 19 September 2017.
For a long time I have been concerned that the Australian Digital Health Agency
(previously NEHTA) has been attempting to develop various solutions to a
number of complex digital health problems which it does not seem to really
understand, and as a consequence it is promoting an assortment of unsubstantiated
ideas deficient in clarity, prudence and substance.
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