Sign the Petition

Decisions about who can diagnose and prescribe your medicine are being made right now on a short consultation timeline, pushed by the same organisation that has been lobbying the government for these changes. A petition with real numbers behind it is one of the few tools patients, pharmacists and doctors have to make sure decision-makers can't ignore how many people this affects.

What we're asking for

1. An independent, evidence-based review before any further rollout.

The Pharmacy Board's proposal lacks an adequate cost, risk, and benefit analysis, and is moving at a scale and pace that isn't supported by sufficient evidence. We're asking for a genuinely independent review, and not a process led by the same board and lobby group proposing the change. All further roll out of pharmacist diagnosis and prescribing should be halted.

2. A real separation between prescribing and dispensing.

A model where the same person diagnoses, prescribes, and sells the medicine creates a conflict of interest that undermines patient trust. We're asking for prescribing and dispensing to be structurally separated. No pharmacist or pharmacy should profit from the sale of a medicine they themselves decided the patient needs.

3. Mandatory, transparent adverse-event reporting.

Hospitals have formal adverse-event reporting systems. Pharmacist prescribing currently doesn't have an equivalent. We call for proper reporting mechanisms for adverse events arising from pharmacy-based prescribing. We're asking for a mandatory, public reporting system so harm can't stay invisible. Until then, we shall perform this function on behalf of the public.

4. Prescribing only within collaborative care, never autonomous prescribing.

International models that actually work involve pharmacists prescribing as part of a collaborative clinical team with GPs and not prescribing independently. We are asking that any pharmacist prescribing role be built around collaboration with a patient's GP. There should not be prescribing independent of medical oversight for scheduled medications.

Why your signature matters

Petitions with real, verifiable numbers are harder for regulators and governments to wave away. Every signature is a data point that says: patients and doctors are watching this, and expect to be consulted, not informed after the fact!