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Speaker 1: Joining us on the line right now is the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Pharmacy Guilds President Peter Hatswell. Good morning to you, Peter.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Peter,

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Speaker 1: what do you make of these proposed changes.

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Speaker 2: They've been coming for a while and they certainly we're

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Speaker 2: back as in the Northern Territory, we're one of the

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Speaker 2: last jurisdictions to actually see this moving forward properly, so

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Speaker 2: we're a little bit behind the other states that Sfile's

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Speaker 2: Queensland have already implemented UTI treatment by pharmacists and that's

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Speaker 2: diagnosis and prescribing and supply of antibiotics for most women.

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Speaker 2: And it's a common, very common condition. It's not treated properly,

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Speaker 2: the person could end up with all sorts of complications

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Speaker 2: and possibly even in hospital. So it's a good thing

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Speaker 2: for this to come through. And certainly it's relating to,

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Speaker 2: as you said, sort of the simple conditions, infections and

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Speaker 2: things like that that need to be treated in a

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Speaker 2: timely manner and otherwise just simple chronic conditions where the

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Speaker 2: person is stable and just needs to needs to be

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Speaker 2: checked up and to make sure that everything's okay. And

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Speaker 2: then and get a prescription.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, So it does sound like it would just

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Speaker 1: be you know, fairly stock standard sort of medications.

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Speaker 2: Pretty much like as pharmacists. You know, we're trained, fully

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Speaker 2: trained healthcare professionals. We understand medications and we you know,

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Speaker 2: it's it's this is something that's been going on in

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Speaker 2: other First world countries around the world, like England and

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Speaker 2: Canada and New Zealand, where these sorts of skills are

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Speaker 2: already being used there and to you know, to help

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Speaker 2: the population sort of, to keep to keep the the

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Speaker 2: GP clinic a little bit freer to do the more

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Speaker 2: complicated stuff. And of course anything anything comes across in

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Speaker 2: the pharmacy that's a bit more complicated, well that will

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Speaker 2: raise red flags and they'll absolutely be redirected towards someone

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Speaker 2: that's more skilled for that kind of thing, the complex stuff.

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Speaker 2: So out talking about the the stuff that's just bogging

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Speaker 2: up the system and costing the government and the taxpayer

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Speaker 2: a lot of money without any real positive benefit. We

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Speaker 2: can we can help in this way the whole system

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Speaker 2: work better.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it'll be a common sense approach. It

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Speaker 1: also seems like it could potentially, you know, like for

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Speaker 1: people that just need to fill, like we said, like

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Speaker 1: a fairly common sort of script or have an ailment

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Speaker 1: that you know that pharmacists are able to actually help with.

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Speaker 1: It seems like it would be a more cost effective

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Speaker 1: option for Territorians too, it would.

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Speaker 2: It's going to save it's going to definitely help on

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Speaker 2: the cost of living crisis. You've got I mean, how

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Speaker 2: much does it cost to in the extra money beyond

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Speaker 2: the CO So the copay amount is just going up

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Speaker 2: and up to see a GP, as well as the

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Speaker 2: time it takes to get into see a GP. So

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Speaker 2: we've got that, you know, much sort of cost effective

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Speaker 2: method of getting the treatment you need and in a

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Speaker 2: more timely manner.

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Speaker 1: Now I understand that this needs to go through it's

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Speaker 1: sort of going through the have your say process at

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Speaker 1: the moment, so Territorians are able to jump on online

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Speaker 1: and have their say on this. But what are some

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Speaker 1: of the different pharmacies, some of those community pharmacies or

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Speaker 1: all of the pharmacies across the Northern Territory saying at

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Speaker 1: this point in terms of this announcement.

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Speaker 2: Everybody, everyone I've spoken to, and I'm pretty sure that

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Speaker 2: there's always someone that doesn't think they've got the capacity

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Speaker 2: to do this, but mostly everyone really wants to go

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Speaker 2: down this path and wants to be able to sort

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Speaker 2: of do the training necessary so that we can diagnose

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Speaker 2: and prescribe safely. So I think it's going to be

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Speaker 2: a move forward for pharmacy. Like I said, it's happening

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Speaker 2: all over the place, and in the Eastern States, there

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Speaker 2: are fully trained pharmacists already coming out of the university's programs.

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Speaker 2: But I think if anything, it's going to help with

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Speaker 2: the lack of pharmacists we have. It's already showing that

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Speaker 2: there's more people going in through university to do pharmacy

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Speaker 2: because they see it as being a much more interesting

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Speaker 2: career path now as whereas before it was kind of

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Speaker 2: I guess you could think it was almost a glorified shopkeeper.

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Speaker 2: Well it's going way beyond that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon it's a good thing. Well, it seems

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Speaker 1: on the face of it like a good thing. I

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Speaker 1: know myself. At different times, you know, you might have

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Speaker 1: had an ear infection or something that you know you

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Speaker 1: need an antibiotic. It might be something you've had before,

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Speaker 1: and you know you're hoping that the pharmacist will be

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Speaker 1: able to help you out rather than having to book

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Speaker 1: in for a doctor's appointment, obviously noting that if it's

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Speaker 1: more severe, you're going to still need to go and

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Speaker 1: see your GP.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's how many times. I mean, if you've got noise,

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Speaker 2: you're and vomiting and then you're feeling really sick, you know,

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Speaker 2: you don't really have a week to wait to get

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Speaker 2: into the GP. So you could end up in the

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Speaker 2: hospital waiting for you six six hours to get through

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Speaker 2: because it's a busy night. You know, all those sorts

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Speaker 2: of things going to be dealt with much much more timely.

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Speaker 2: And air infection as well, if you've got an ear infection,

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Speaker 2: the last thing you want to be doing is waiting

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Speaker 2: a week just to see a GP.

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Speaker 1: Is spot on? Hey, before I let you go this morning,

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Speaker 1: has there been any update on the on the vaping changes.

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Speaker 1: Do you know if any businesses have decided to sort

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Speaker 1: of sell vapes or where they're at?

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Speaker 2: There's there, There hasn't been a lot of enthusiasm. I

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Speaker 2: think I said last time that we never asked for it,

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Speaker 2: we never we never wanted this. And you know, here

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Speaker 2: we are being the regulator of a of a medication

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Speaker 2: that really has no therapeutic value and it certainly has

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Speaker 2: never been tested or a trial to as phnicosine cessation.

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Speaker 2: So there has been a lot of hesitancy about it,

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Speaker 2: and certainly it would appear that we're not seeing a

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Speaker 2: lot of people getting to the doctors, even a number

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Speaker 2: of just talking about the prescription side of things. It

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Speaker 2: would appear that a lot of doctors are not really

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Speaker 2: interested in being patients to deal with, you know, to

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Speaker 2: prescribe dates. So at this stage, right now, between now

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Speaker 2: and October, there really isn't much of a channel to

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Speaker 2: get them through pharmacy. There's the descriptions are few and

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Speaker 2: far between, and a lot of pharmacies that haven't really

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Speaker 2: taken up the idea of wanting to stock it. There

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Speaker 2: will probably be a few that do, but they're even

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Speaker 2: those I've spoken to some people said, oh, they're thinking

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Speaker 2: about it, but they are in themselves very concerned about

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Speaker 2: the security risk, RAM rating, threatening people, threatening staff and

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Speaker 2: all stuff. Things like that. Nobody wants to be in

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Speaker 2: that position.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which I think is you know, I can understand

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Speaker 1: the concerns in that area, I really really can. Peter.

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Speaker 1: I always appreciate your time, mate. I know you're a

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Speaker 1: busy man. Thank you very much for having a chat

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Speaker 1: with me today. Katie anytime, thank you, thanks so much.