Physician-led care essential for safe prescribing
Date published:
19 Jun 2026
Safe prescribing for complex patients cannot be separated from careful diagnosis, ongoing clinical assessment and integrated physician led care. For this reason, and a wide range of regulatory, patient safety and quality concerns, the RACP has opposed the Pharmacy Board of Australia’s proposal to introduce national regulatory endorsement for pharmacist prescribing of Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medicines.
More than 320 members in Australia contributed expertise to this comprehensive
submission. This is an incredible result and we greatly appreciate your time and expertise.
We are committed to ongoing constructive engagement and have called on the Pharmacy Board to work with us and other medical colleges to differentiate tightly defined, low-risk prescribing scenarios pharmacists might perform for patients without significant clinical complexity or undifferentiated conditions in settings with significant access barriers.