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Source: ONE News -
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In a medical first for the country, pharmacists will soon be doing the job of doctors in managing patients on one of New Zealand's most popular - yet risky - drugs.
A contract has been signed to allow 15 pharmacies nationwide to carry out "standing orders" to decide what doses of the blood thinning drug warfarin patients should receive.
But one doctors group has major concerns for patient safety.
About 100,000 New Zealanders use the pills every day to ward off strokes and blood clots, but it's crucial to take the right dose - too little warfarin could lead to a potentially fatal clot while too much could result in uncontrollable bleeding.
The government said pharmacists were well qualified to do the job and patients would benefit hugely.
Kathleen Lewis has been on warfarin for 18 months under the care of her GP. But now her local pharmacist, Ian McMichael, will manage her on it, helped by a machine called the CoaguChek. A drop of blood tells the pharmacist at exactly what rate her blood is clotting and a computerised algorithm works out her daily dose for the next month.
Until now getting a result took all day and required a full blood test at the lab and a call later from her doctor's nurse.
"(Now) it only takes about 10 minutes and I'm able to walk out the door and go home," Lewis said.
McMichael's Hamilton pharmacy had been trialling the system for a year.
"We're doing more than just handing out medication, we're making sure that a complicated medication like warfarin is really being used properly by the patients," McMichael said.
In the deal signed between the government's Health Workforce Group and the Pharmaceutical Society, 15 more pharmacists will start trialling the work from October.
"This is a smart way to use some of our most skilled people in the health service in order to help our very busy general practitioners," Health Minister Tony Ryall said.
But the Medical Association said while the move was innovative, it was risky.
"Patients don't usually have one problem when they're on anti-coagulation therapy, they have multiple problems and the whole complex picture needs to be considered by the centre of the team, which is the general practice doctor and nurse," the Association's Dr Peter Foley said.
McMichael said that would still happen and they had been sending the results back to GPs who had been more than happy with the accuracy of the results they had been getting.
The Medical Association said they were questioning why GPs hadn't been included in the work and said their practice nurses could do the job.
Ryall said the government had not ruled that out but it was all part of the strategy to make better use of the skills of the health workforce.
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