Source: Health Quality and Safety Commission
The Choosing Wisely campaign is consulting on Choosing Wisely recommendations for pharmacy in New Zealand.
To engage health professionals, Choosing Wisely encourages groups of health professionals to identify tests, treatments, and procedures health care professionals, patients and consumers should question in their scope of practice. Each recommendation is based on the best available evidence. These recommendations are not prescriptive but are intended as guidance to start a conversation with patients about what is appropriate and necessary.
In Aotearoa New Zealand we now have over 150 recommendations from a wide range of professions.
In 2018, a group of pharmacists working in primary health organisations, district health boards and community pharmacy began working together to develop Choosing Wisely recommendations relevant for pharmacy.
The working group is now sharing five proposed recommendations with the wider pharmacy profession in Aotearoa New Zealand for consultation.
The group reviewed recommendations from other pharmacy groups worldwide, narrowed them down to ones that would have an impact in Aotearoa New Zealand and supplemented these with possible Aotearoa New Zealand-specific recommendations. They were developed further by a small working group; they reduced the initial long list to five recommendations relevant for pharmacy professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand, researched the evidence base and reviewed the appropriateness of the criteria and wording. The recommendations also needed to meet Choosing Wisely criteria.
The proposed Choosing Wisely recommendations for pharmacy in Aotearoa New Zealand cover the treatment of gout, complementary medicines, the ‘triple whammy’, dispensing opioids with laxatives, and when to do in-pharmacy point-of-care testing. Work has also started to identify patient resources which match the recommendations.
For more information about the recommendations and how to provide feedback, see the Choosing Wisely website.
