Page 5 - Submission to the 2015-16 Federal Budget

About PSA
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) is the peak national professional pharmacy organisation representing Australia’s pharmacists working in all sectors and locations.
PSA’s core functions include:
• providing high quality continuing professional development, education and practice support to pharmacists;
• developing and advocating standards and guidelines to inform and enhance pharmacists’ practice; and
• representing pharmacists’ role as frontline health professionals.
PSA is also a registered training organisation and offers qualifications including certificate and diploma-level courses tailored for pharmacists, pharmacy assistants and interns.
integrated across health care settings.18 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have two‐to‐three times higher levels of illness than non‐Indigenous Australians. 19
This is a key area of policy focus for the Government, who have indicated their commitment to achieving health equality between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians within a generation.21
Together with changes to lifestyle factors, long term medicine treatment is usually needed to prevent or reduce disease progression and thereby minimise or delay negative outcomes of ill health. Despite the high burden of chronic disease, under‐use of medicines amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people persists, due to a range of factors.22
Without improved medicine information and increased medicine adherence, it is likely that chronic disease for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will remain poorly controlled and morbidity and mortality rates will remain high.
Importance of medication adherence
Adherence to a medication regimen is central
to good health outcomes. However, evidence
is emerging that there is an increase in patients failing to collect their prescriptions.23 Medication adherence for many patients with chronic disease is extremely poor, resulting in disease‐related complications, higher levels of hospitalisation, and increased morbidity and mortality.24 The economic costs of non‐adherence are high. 25
Central to good adherence is the quality of the health professional/patient relationship and effective health communication.27 The Compliance to Medicines Working Group Report to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee highlighted the importance of the patient/clinician relationship and also identified that “consumers value advice from a variety of health professionals about their medicines.”28
Optimising the management of
long-term conditions
Chronic diseases, or long‐term conditions, place significant demands on the health care system and incur significant health care costs associated with medicines, diagnostic services, aged care, medical services and in particular, hospital expenses. In 2011 around 240 million prescriptions were dispensed through the PBS at a cost of $8.3 billion to the Australian Government and a further $2 billion in patient co‐payments to pharmacies. For the PBS
in particular, spending per person is projected to increase by 22% over the period to 2020.29
Optimising the management of long‐term conditions through quality use of medicines (QUM) has
been shown to reduce or delay the incidence of hospitalisation in patients with chronic diseases30 and to reduce the need for, and spending on, expensive hospital admissions and medical services.31
The Government, through its policy Healthy Life, Better Ageing33 seeks to address these rising costs and improve quality of lives. For most people the use of medicines is just one element of contribution to good or better health. This submission recognises the importance of a coordinated, team care approach where health professionals with different skills and expertise work in partnership to deliver care in a synergistic, cohesive and holistic manner. Such an approach was recommended by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission in its final report:
“We recommend improving the way in which general practitioners, primary health care professionals and medical and other specialists manage the care of people with chronic and complex conditions through shared care arrangements in a community setting.”34
80% of the life-expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians can be attributed to chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and liver disease.20
30–50% of prescribed medicines for long term conditions
are not taken as recommended.26
Integratingpharmacistsintoprimarycareteams I©PharmaceuticalSocietyofAustraliaLtd. 5