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Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday, the twenty seventh of September.
I'm Zara, I'm Lucy from tomorrow.
If you're a New South Wales resident aged eighteen to forty nine, and you've been taking the contraceptive pill for two years, you'll be able to get it from a trained pharmacist without looking into CUGP more than once a year. And New South Wales is not alone. Most of the country is now trialing similar approaches and extending it to
other medications like treatments for UTIs and exma. In today's deep dive, we'll explain what's driven this push to give pharmacists more power over everyday medications and what it means for you. But first, Sarah, what's making headlines.
A joint statement from twelve countries, including Australia, has called for an immediate twenty one day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. The statement said the situation is quote intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation. This is in nobody's interests neither of the people of Israel nor
the people of Lebanon. According to the Group of Nations, a diplomatic settlement must be met that can quote enable civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety.
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that job vacancies are the lowest they've been in two years. The ABS defines job vacancies as employee jobs that are available for immediate filling, and uses this figure as an indicator of unmet labor demand. According to the ABS, there were three hundred and thirty thousand job vacancies in August twenty twenty four, down by eighteen thousand from may.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has become the first sitting mayor to face criminal charges in the city's history. The New York Times first reported that Adams had been indicted, before he later confirmed that he was expecting to be charged following a long running corruption investigation. It comes after many senior staffers in his administration have resigned in recent weeks.
In a video after the New York Times report, Adams said that any charges against him would be quote based on lies and confirmed he would continue to lead as mayor of the city.
And today's good news. Scientists have found a new species of ghost shark that lives exclusively in waters of Australia and New Zealand. Closely related to sharks and rays, ghost sharks are an extremely rare type of fish found deep in the ocean. While all ghost sharks around the world were thought to be the same species, the newly discovered Australasian narrow nosed spookfish is genetically different to its cousins.
Doctor britt Finucci from New Zealand's National in Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research led to the team who made the discovery. Finucci gave the fish a scientific name, Harriota Avia. Avia means grandmother in Latin. The name was given in honor of the research as late grandmother, who, she said, quote proudly supported me through my career as a scientist.
Okay, so, Lucy oral contraception aka the pill, We're just going to call it the pill from here on in. It's been available to Ossie's for sixty three years now, so statistically most of us really don't know what adult life is without the pill, and for most of that time, accessing the pills being this matter of seeing the GP every so often and getting a script, then getting that script filled at the pharmacy.
But that is now changing. Talk to me about it.
Yes, exactly. That is now changing across the country, but specifically from tomorrow in New South Wales. It's what I would call the biggest development in our relationship with the pill since it went on the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, the BBS, which subsidizes medications. That happened in nineteen seventy two. Before that, the pill was subject to a thirty percent luxury tax and I think.
Got a luxury tax. Exactually, what a luxury? Your child? What a luxury?
Well, at that time it really was a luxury. And I think that shows you how our relationship with the pill has changed, that it's become something that had a hefty luxury tax to something that is such a necessity that governments around the country are working to find ways to make it easier and less complicated and more straightforward
and less of an issue to access. Is really what I'm trying to say, taking up less time out of our week really, so from tomorrow, certain people in New South Wales, so if you're aged eighteen to forty nine and you've been taking the pill for two years. You'll only need to see your GP once a year to get your prescription renewed, and the rest of the time pharmacists those who carry out special training can dispense it to you.
Okay, tak me through how this change came about, because you know, as you intimated earlier, there hasn't been that much change in this area for quite a while now, So how did this happen.
I'll talk about New South Wales specifically first and then we'll get to the rest of the country later. But the first we heard of this idea in New South Wales where we are is right before the state election last year. So February twenty twenty three, the then coalition government led by Dominic Perrote made an election promise to trial allowing quote pharmacists to renew prescriptions for the contraceptive pill. So that's really the first we heard of it at
this state level. The coalition did go on to lose that election, but the idea stuck around and in September last year, the new government, the Labor government, announced almost one thousand pharmacies were eligible to dispense the pill without a prescription to those aged eighteen to thirty five, again with that same caveat of if you've been prescribed it in the last two years. That trial which lasted a year so September to September where we are now, women only paid the cost of the medication.
Okay, so they weren't paying any other costs, for example, that they would have been with a GP previously. What was the reasoning that the government gave for this trial, Because it's interesting that this is one of those moments where there does seem to be this bipartisan support. It was first floaded as an idea by the former liberal Premier Dom Perrote, but carried through by Labor Premier Chris Mins. What are they saying is the reason behind this?
So when Perrote announced this election promise, he said it was partly motivated by quote, making it easier and quicker for people, particularly women, to access important prescription medications and treatments. So making it easier to access. But governments don't tend to do things just because it will make our lives easier. They have to have other reasons. And another really important reason that they gave was reducing strain on GPS over
the last couple of years. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners RACGP that the peak body for GPS has really repeatedly flagged gps are overworked and burnt out.
And we've spoken about that so many times on this podcast before we've spoken to GPS so are saying, you know, they just don't have enough hours in the day to get the work done exactly.
That's on top of the difficulty that lots of TDA readers and listeners have also told us that they've had difficulty finding gps who bulk bill, they have difficulty getting into see a doctor when they need to. So that really, you know, it makes sense if GPS are saying we're having trouble getting to see everyone, and people are saying we're having trouble getting into see doctors. So that's also
particularly true for people in regional and rural areas. According to a government report last month, people in those areas face a significant shortfall of GPS in the coming years. It's only going to get worse year on year.
Okay, And so then was the logic that if a woman doesn't have to go to her GP every so often to get that script renewed, but rather could do it at the pharmacy. That that would free up the GP for other work. Is that what was the logic?
That was the logic?
Yes, And that it also would make it easier for rural and regional people to quote get the help they need without having to drive a long way to see a GP who maybe doesn't have an appointment for three weeks.
Yeah, okay, And so those are the reasons why the Government of the day and the previous coalition government both.
Thought that this was a good idea.
What about the other side, what are some of the downfalls perhaps of this sort of policy.
So despite this being pitched as something that will help GPS, the RACGP actually opposed this trial when it was first announced. They suggested there wasn't enough information about how patients would be kept safe. Another peak body, the Australian Medical Association, which represents all doctors, not just GPS, campaigned against the trial and others like it in other states, saying it quote put patients at risk.
I know that one of the other ideas that I'd heard was that you know, this is also revenue that's then not going to GPS. Because those appointments are drying up that some gps are complaining about the fact that they then won't be able to, you know, have those regular appointments that created some sort of revenue for their practices exactly.
So those are some of the concerns about this trial specifically.
Of course, we.
Should mention that there are and continue to be concerns about the pill itself. Yeah, TDA listeners have told us many times before about things like Migrain's, hormonal imbalances or mental ill health that they traced back to taking the pill. New South Wales Health's website notes that low risk pills, the kind that can be dispensed under this trial that's been made permanent, which can contain quote only small amounts of estrogen, have been linked to a low risk of blood clots and stroke.
Okay, And so with all of that said, with you know, the risks of the pill obviously identified, but also the fore and against about trial, we now know that the government has moved to make it permanent. So if I am someone who tomorrow Saturday want to go and get the pill, what does that look like?
So you need to have been taking it for two years and you need to find a pharmacy that has a pharmacist that's taken the government's training to be able to dispense the pill. If someone has been prescribed a certain type of contraception by a doctor, a pharmacist won't be able to change the kind that you're taking.
Okay.
So if I have been on a certain pill for a year and a half and I want to change that, I'd still need to go back to the GP to get that script changed, yes, okay, And so then how often would I then have to go to the GP if not for that scenario?
So every twelve months, once a year is how often you'd be going back to the GP to renew your overall script. Then when you go to the pharmacist, now that the trial has been made permanent, you'll be paying what the government expects to be around twenty to thirty dollars for a consultation with a pharmacist, and then you'll also be paying for the medication.
What have pharmacists said about this?
I think I probably know the answer, but you know now knowing as well that they will be paid for that consultation as well, now that the trial is over.
What have we heard from the pharmacists themselves.
Pharmacists are in favor of the trial being made permanent. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, which is the industry's peak professional body, supported the measure. It's nytoth Wales's president, Luke Kelly called it quote an important step kind of cementing the role of community pharmacies in providing support to patients.
Now, Lucy, we've been speaking about the pills specifically because you know there is this big announcement from tomorrow. But I have read and heard about not just the pill being accessible in these sorts of scenarios. What do we know about the other medications that people can access in this sort of way going through the pharmacy rather than through a GP.
You're right, the pill is not the only one. Under a similar pro New South Wales, pharmacists who've completed a special training can dispense medication for uncomplicated UTIs to women who are eighteen to sixty five who haven't had one recently. Interesting and under another trial, trained pharmacists can dispense some medications to some people without a prescription for skin conditions including exma and impetaigo.
Okay, and there's New South Wales because I think we've only spoken about New South Wales so far, is that the only state or territory where these trials are taking place.
So across the country, states and territories are undergoing trials or have made these things permanent. In Wa, it's women aged eighteen to thirty nine who can get a resupply of the pill without seeing a GP more than once a year. In South Australia, the same applies for those aged seventeen to forty. In Tazi, for women aged sixteen to fifty if you've taken it for two years. In the Act, there's an ongoing trial for those aged eighteen to thirty five, and a trial in Victoria for those
aged sixteen to fifty actually wraps up next month. Many of those states also have similar programs for UTIs and skin conditions, like New South Wales. Really leading the charge here is Queensland, where a trial is underway allowing pharmacists to prescribe, not just dispense, the pill to women and girls older than sixteen. The state government said this is aimed at making it easier for women in rural and
regional areas to manage their reproductive health. It is still a trial, so we'll have to wait and see what the results are.
Lucie, thank you so much for joining us on today's pod, and thank you for listening to another week of The Daily Os. We'll be back again with a good News wrap tomorrow, but until then, have a brilliant Friday.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily Os acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Abridge, Rejonal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.