Community Pharmacies Support Better Access to Palliative Care Medicines

Pharmacies can now let their community know they stock the four core palliative care medicines from the National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List.

Healthdirect's National health Services Directory (NHSD) now enables pharmacies to include a service offering of 'Palliative care medicine' in their listing. The NHSD powers the Service Finder, the public-facing interface of the directory, where the community can find up-to-date information about health services near them. Service Finder is accessed more than one million times a month.

Including 'Palliative care medicine' as an offering enables health professionals, patients and carers to identify local pharmacies that stock the four medicines from the caring@home National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List.

caring@home Director, Professor Liz Reymond, said that updating pharmacy listings on the NHSD is an important step to ensure local health professionals and families know where to source medicines, without having to drive around or call several places when the need is urgent.

"Stocking medicines from the list plays a vital role in supporting timely medicine access, which can help avoid unnecessary suffering and unwanted transfers to inpatient facilities for a home-based patient," she said.

"Pharmacies should consider stocking medicines from the list. Always having these four medicines in stock and reflecting that information on Service Finder will enable easier navigation, rapid dispensing and timely access for patients in their community."

Pharmacists can further support carers with resources available in the Community Palliative Care Resources Pharmacy Pack and can update their palliative care knowledge through the ASPIRE Palliative Care Foundation Training Program.

caring@home is a National Palliative Care Project funded by teh Australian Government and is led by the Brisbane South Palliative Care Collaborative.

In 2024, caring@home released the National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List, which identifies four medicines for use by home-based palliative patients who require urgent symptom relief. These four medicines can be used to manage most common end-of-life symptoms.

For more information and to update your listing to include 'Palliative care medicine', visit: https://www.caringathomeproject.com.au/for-health-professionals/community-pharmacy-tools