News
President’s Blog: Convenient Care
Friday July 12, 2024
A few weeks ago, the NSW Premier remarked on social media that the latest scope extension for pharmacists in his State to treat dermatological conditions would spare patients from the “hassle of sitting in the waiting room at the GP clinic.” You can imagine how well-received this slight was amongst our profession.
As has become the thought process within governments, the other side of the equation – quality of care – is naively packaged into a bolt-on, narrowly-focused, disease- and treatment-specific module or two. Inadequately considered are genuine, holistic quality of care that can only be delivered after a long postgraduate apprenticeship; integration of mainstream health services; suitability of the consulting environment (which goes beyond privacy, which is itself easily addressed); genuine costs of care and more.
Whilst we can all bristle at the misuse of consumer satisfaction as justification for extension of scope, we must acknowledge that the society that licenses us to operate has become increasingly convenience-focused. We all have as individuals. Families are harder-working and more time-poor than ever. We’re not satisfied to wait at taxi ranks, book flights through travel agents, or search bricks-and-mortar stores for coveted items.
Governments already know that healthcare is different, but in a popularity contest repeated every three or four years, the waters of truth are muddy. We need to prove to the public that healthcare is different, and that isn’t easy. When told by two different, trusted professions that they can each manage mild eczema or psoriasis, which arguments from the medical profession are really going to cut through in the face of a perception of inconvenience? Opportunistic screening? Preventing fragmentation of care? Quality of care? It will be tough to win, but we do need to try, and can’t ever take for granted the regard in which doctors are held.
At the same time, the medical profession has to innovate if it is to remain in its position of health leadership. We should embrace and enable convenience, wherever it’s medically appropriate. Entrepreneurs will always push boundaries as far as they can, so these should be drawn by our leadership bodies. But to assume that our perception of what’s best for patients will always be acceptable to patients risks putting us offside with governments and patients alike.
