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Health · Asia Pacific

Avant urges a pause as pharmacist prescribing expands

Avant urged Australian governments to pause the expansion of autonomous pharmacist prescribing until a national safety framework is established. Its analysis found that one in five people involved in prescription-related incidents suffered serious injury, while the Pharmacy Guild said the claims concerned doctors’ prescribing.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 3 outlets' reportingHow it's made

View timeline · 1 entry
3 outletsLatest reporting 2 min read
Coverage: Too few ratedL 0 · C 2 · R 0 · 1 unrated
Updat3 graphic: Australia
Updat3 graphic · Map data: Natural Earth Natural Earth (public domain)

What happened

Key facts

  • Avant urged governments to halt the expansion of autonomous pharmacist prescribing until a national safety framework is established (per The Sydney Morning Herald).
  • Avant’s analysis found that one in five people involved in prescription-related incidents suffered serious injury (per The Sydney Morning Herald).
  • Avant said safety guardrails should be established before prescribing powers expand further (per The Sydney Morning Herald).
  • The Pharmacy Guild of Australia said Avant’s data concerns doctors’ prescribing (per The Sydney Morning Herald, ajp.com.au, racgp.org.au).
  • The Queensland Pharmacy Guild president said pharmacists should work within their training and refer complications to a GP (per The Sydney Morning Herald, ajp.com.au).

The brief

Avant has called on Australian governments to stop expanding autonomous pharmacist prescribing until a national safety framework is in place, pointing to its analysis of 16,000 claims against medical practitioners over five years.

Avant reported serious injury in one in five people involved in prescription-related incidents, a finding it says should inform safeguards before prescribing authority grows further. Avant chief medical officer Steve Robson argued that guardrails should come before any additional expansion.

The insurer’s call concerns autonomous prescribing by pharmacists, while its cited claims are against medical practitioners. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia challenged the relevance of the data to the policy debate, saying it concerns doctors’ prescribing. The claims analysis found prescription-only Section 4 drugs featured in 81 per cent of prescription-related claims.

Medicines for conditions such as depression led that category. Schedule 8 medicines, including opioids, appeared in 36 per cent of cases. These figures describe the claims examined by Avant, rather than a direct measure of pharmacist prescribing outcomes.

The policy question is immediate because pharmacists already have prescribing authority for some Section 4 medicines in most states. The examples cited include antibiotics, steroids and contraceptives.

Avant is asking governments to pause expansion of autonomous authority until a national safety framework is established; the Guild’s position, as reported, is that the claims do not demonstrate risks from pharmacist prescribing.

Queensland Pharmacy Guild president Chris Owen said pharmacists with appropriate training should practise within their scope and refer complications to a GP. That position supports pharmacist practice within defined limits, while Avant’s appeal puts the establishment of safety rules ahead of further expansion.

The available figures do not independently establish how often pharmacist prescribing causes harm or how the claims compare with outcomes under pharmacist prescribing programs.

The dispute therefore turns in part on whether claims involving medical practitioners can answer questions about extending pharmacists’ prescribing powers, and on what safety framework governments would require before any expansion.

Why it matters

  • Patients affected by prescription-related incidents bear the documented harm: Avant reported serious injury in one in five people involved in the incidents covered by its analysis.
  • Medicines for conditions such as depression led the Section 4 drugs in Avant’s claims; prescription-only Section 4 drugs featured in 81 per cent of prescription-related claims.
  • Pharmacists and patients face a policy choice over access and safeguards: trained pharmacists can already prescribe some antibiotics, steroids and contraceptives in most states.
  • The Pharmacy Guild disputes how directly Avant’s claims apply to pharmacist prescribing, while Avant argues that a national safety framework should precede further expansion.

What to watch next

  • Whether Australian governments accept Avant’s call to pause expansion of autonomous pharmacist prescribing until a national safety framework is established.
  • Whether governments establish a national safety framework before extending prescribing powers.
  • Whether the Pharmacy Guild of Australia provides further evidence or arguments about why claims against medical practitioners do not apply to pharmacist prescribing.
  • Whether Queensland Pharmacy Guild president Chris Owen’s position on pharmacists working within scope and referring complications to GPs is reflected in policy decisions.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
4 source articles · 3 unique outlets
Outlet political mix: Too few rated· 2 Center · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: Asia 100%
Outlet political mix
Too few rated
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
2 outlets
0 outlets
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
3 unique outletsDominant coverage: Asia
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in Asia (3 of 3 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

1 framing difference · 3 uncorroborated claims · 2 information gaps
The reports repeat the same account with different emphasis; its central claims are not independently confirmed in the reporting Updat3 read.Compared across 3 reports whose article text Updat3 read.
Framing / emphasis differences
Sources emphasise different angles, actors or consequences of the same reporting.
  • The Sydney Morning Herald reports Avant’s call for a pause and the Pharmacy Guild’s objection that the claims concern doctors’ prescribing; the RACGP excerpt emphasizes the claims analysis and its reported medication categories.
Updat3: These are differences of emphasis, not disputes about what is reported. They do not show that the reported claims are true.
One-sided or uncorroborated claims
Claims that come from one party or one source family and are not independently corroborated.
  • Avant presents its claims analysis as support for pausing prescribing expansion; the Pharmacy Guild says the underlying data concerns doctors’ prescribing.
  • Steve Robson said safety guardrails should be established before prescribing powers expand further.
  • Chris Owen said pharmacists should practise within their scope and refer complications to a GP.
Updat3: Not independently corroborated yet — treat as a claim, not an established fact.
Not established by the reporting
Information the available reporting does not contain or confirm. This is a gap, not a disagreement.
  • The sources do not provide a national count of patients harmed specifically by pharmacist prescribing.
  • The Pharmacy Guild says the claims concern doctors’ prescribing, leaving their relevance to risks from pharmacist prescribing contested.
Updat3: Updat3 cannot conclude anything about this from the current sources.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Queensland’s Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot began on 1 October 2023, allowing participating pharmacists to assess and treat patients for 17 conditions, including uncomplicated urinary tract infections.
    Background · from our historical context

How we got here

Queensland’s Community Pharmacy Scope of Practice Pilot began on 1 October 2023, allowing participating pharmacists to assess and treat patients for 17 conditions, including uncomplicated urinary tract infections.

The Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 established the national framework for regulating medicines, while state and territory medicines and poisons legislation governs prescribing authority. Queensland’s Medicines and Poisons Act 2019 provided the statutory setting for its later pilot.

Original sources

4 articles from 3 outlets

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