The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has called on the Queensland Government to come clean on the North Queensland Retail Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot.
It comes following the RACGP lodging a Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act) request to the Queensland Health Department on 28 March this year – 256 days ago. So far, no information has been forthcoming. The application sought access to meeting agendas, meeting papers (including notes and briefing papers), minutes, correspondence, budget documents and briefings relating to the pilot.
The college has previously cautioned that the pilot will fragment care and put patient safety and wellbeing at risk. In October this year, the RACGP doubled down on warnings that the experiment will result in poorer health outcomes for patients and much higher healthcare costs. Since then, several jurisdictions including Victoria and NSW, have forged ahead with their own pharmacy prescribing plans.
RACGP Queensland Chair Dr Bruce Willett slammed the delay and said that patients and GPs deserve better.
"This delay is unacceptable, what has the Government got to hide exactly?" he asked.
"The RACGP lodged an application in March this year and then received a 'Notice of Intention to refuse' the application in late April. After the application was revised the Department agreed to process it but asked for an extension which we willingly granted.
"In early September, we advised them that we needed the documents as soon as possible and said that the college would seek review via the Office of the Information Commission if additional extensions were required. Then more extensions were requested, a new Principal RTI Officer took over the application, they advised that they were conducting internal consultations and many emails were exchanged and phone conversations took place and on and on and on it went. Enough is enough, this has gone on for too long. We have gone through all of the proper processes and appear to have been stonewalled."
RACGP President and Mackay-based GP Dr Nicole Higgins said that scrutiny of the pilot was needed more than ever.
"This is not rocket science, if due process has been followed then these documents exist, and it is in the public's interest to know what they contain, especially as this pilot is the product of an election promise rather than responding to a demonstrable public need," she said.
"This RTI Act application is especially important as it will hopefully shed light on these secretive arrangements between the Queensland Government and the Pharmacy Guild. So far, the entire Queensland retail pharmacy expanded scope of practice pilot has been rubber-stamped without proper scrutiny and in a proper-functioning democracy that must change. Earlier this year, we withdrew from the pilot's steering advisory committee due to serious concerns about patient safety. Our hands were tied, we had no other option.
"In October, the Government publicly announced it was pushing ahead with the pilot despite it being widely opposed by the RACGP as well as the Australian Medical Association, the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations in Queensland.
"The entire scheme is very murky. We want to know why the Government settled on this election promise, why it is deemed necessary, what communications occurred with the Pharmacy Guild and other groups, what research and evidence was considered, whether potential risks were properly assessed and addressed, how it was designed and how much money is being spent from the public purse. Without these answers, we really are flying blind.
"In this day and age, it really is worrying to see how taxpayer funds can be spent, with little to no transparency or accountability. The general public really do deserve better, and there really should be checks and balances in place to ensure that public funds are delivering on community need and being used wisely."
~
