07/07/2026
Ambulance ramping is being talked about as a hospital problem. It isn’t. 🚨
It’s a signal that people are not getting the right care, early enough, in the community.
That is why general practice and primary care matter. They are the parts of the system that keep people well, manage chronic conditions, and prevent avoidable hospital presentations.
There is a growing push to expand pharmacy prescribing as part of the response to access pressures.
Pharmacists are a critical part of primary care. Their role in medicines management, safety and patient advice is essential. 💊 But expanding prescribing does not fix the problem we are trying to solve.
Ramping is driven by system pressure, complexity, and gaps in continuity of care. It is not driven by a lack of places to get a script.
Treating a single issue in isolation is different from managing a person’s health.
Health leaders across Australia are raising concerns that expanding prescribing into fragmented or episodic settings risks breaking up care rather than improving it.
🫶 Good care does not stop at diagnosis or prescribing. It includes follow up, monitoring, coordination and understanding how different conditions and treatments interact over time.
That is what general practice is designed to do.
There are also important safety considerations. Prescribing is not just writing a script. It requires diagnosis, clinical judgement and ongoing management, and when it goes wrong the consequences can be serious.
There is also a longstanding principle in healthcare that prescribing and dispensing are separated to protect patient safety. When these functions sit together, there is a recognised risk of conflict of interest that needs careful management.
This is not about roles or turf. It is about how the system works best for patients.
Pharmacists and general practitioners both play essential roles in primary care. They work best as part of a coordinated, team-based system.
👉 If we want to reduce ramping and pressure on hospitals, the answer is not to further fragment care. It is to strengthen general practice and primary care so people receive comprehensive, continuous care, close to home.
That is what keeps people out of hospital.
