Report questions pharmacist prescribing for 20 conditions
Pharmacist prescribing for more than 20 common and minor conditions across Australia lacks strong clinical evidence, according to a SAX Institute report released on 5 July 2026.
The report, Community pharmacist prescribing outcomes in Australia and beyond, examined the rollout of pharmacist prescribing in all Australian states and territories.
The Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics and Data prepared the report, and the Royal Australian College of GPs commissioned it.
The RACGP ordered the review after raising patient safety concerns about rapid changes to prescribing rules for more than 20 conditions.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright called the findings troubling and disputed claims that the schemes are evidence-based.
“The RACGP supports increasing access to healthcare; however, this should never be at the expense of patient safety,” Dr Wright said.
SAX Institute report findings
Most conditions covered by these schemes have never been formally tested in robust clinical trials internationally or in Australia.
Dr Wright said GPs across Australia were seeing adverse outcomes and missed diagnoses after some patients skipped a GP appointment and sought a pharmacy prescription.
He gave one example involving urinary tract infection treatment, followed later by a GP diagnosis of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, pelvic inflammatory disease or an ectopic pregnancy.
All states and territories have announced or started pharmacist prescribing programmes for about 20 common and minor conditions.
The RACGP commissioned the review after state governments expanded those programmes while, in the college’s view, patient safety concerns were ignored.
Dr Wright also criticised repeated claims by the Pharmacy Guild that the treatments were evidence-based.
After the RACGP searched for high-quality clinical evidence and found little, it asked state governments to provide any robust trials or evaluations.
Dr Wright said those governments declined to provide that material, which led the college to commission the independent report as a last resort.
“We looked for high-quality clinical evidence that might support safe autonomous pharmacist prescribing but couldn’t find it,” Dr Wright said.
The review then found that the evidence that does exist is limited or of very low quality.
As a result, Dr Wright challenged state governments and the Pharmacy Guild to release any robust clinical evidence, peer-reviewed trials or evaluations showing autonomous pharmacist prescribing is safe.
He said better access to medicines matters, but coordinated care should not be weakened when diagnosis is uncertain.
For the RACGP, the dispute centres on whether schemes now announced or operating in every Australian jurisdiction were properly tested before wider rollout.
