AMA’s plan to improve teamwork between GPs and pharmacists

AMA president, Assoc Prof Brian Owler, said on 28 May the proposal – the ‘Pharmacist in General Practice Incentive Program’ – would create greater efficiencies for general practices, better care for patients, new career opportunities for pharmacists, and significant Budget savings across the whole health syst.
“Under the program, pharmacists within general practice would assist with things such as medication managent, providing patient education on their medications, and supporting GP prescribing with advice on medication interactions and newly available medications,” Assoc Prof Owler said.
“Evidence shows that the AMA plan would reduce fragmentation of patient care, improve prescribing and use of medicines, reduce hospital admissions from adverse drug events, and deliver better health outcomes for patients.”
The proposal is backed by an independent analysis by Deloitte Access Economics, which shows that the AMA proposal delivers a benefit-cost ratio of 1.56, which means that every $1 invested in the program generates $1.56 in savings to the health syst.
Deloitte Access Economics estimates that, if 3,100 general practices took up the PGPIP, it would cost the federal government $969.5 million over four years. However, that would be more than offset through broader savings to the health syst in the following areas:
– Hospital savings of $1.266 billion – due to reduced number of hospital admissions following a severe adverse drug event;
– PBS savings of $180.6 million – due to the reduced number of prescriptions from better prescribing and medication compliance;
– Individual patient savings of $49.8 million – reduced co-payments for medical consultations and medicines; and
– MBS savings of $18.1 million – due to reduced number of GP attendances following a moderate or severe adverse drug event.
The AMA has developed this model in consultation with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, and it has the full backing of the PSA.
The AMA proposal for the PGPIP, including the Deloitte Access Economics analysis, is at??https://ama.com.au/article/general-practice-pharmacists-improving-patient-care.