QUM revisited

The editorial ‘Quality use of medicines: who owns it now?’ concludes by suggesting a need for improved coordination of quality use of medicines (QUM) activities to deliver better health and public value.¹ This echoes the purpose of the defunct NPS MedicineWise, which was ‘committed to supporting quality use of medicines to improve health decisions and health and economic outcomes’.

An irony about the demise of NPS MedicineWise in 2022 was that it came exactly 30 years after the publication of ‘A policy on the quality use of medicines’.² This stated that a mechanism is needed that ‘facilitates, coordinates and supports initiatives at state, regional and local levels’.² The 1992 policy considered that this coordinating mechanism would ‘operate most effectively by being set up outside government’ – hence the formation of the National Prescribing Service in 1998.³ This evolved into NPS MedicineWise.

With the closure of NPS MedicineWise, the responsibility for coordination now falls on the government sector, including the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, as part of the broader national medicines policy.⁴However, the Department of Health and Aged Care has many demands on its resources. It may be unable to make facilitating the quality use of medicines its top priority. This was recognised by the 1992 policy.²

It would appear the authors are revisiting that policy with their proposal for ‘an overarching governance framework of key QUM stakeholders’. Was that not the original intent of the National Prescribing Service?³

John Dowden
Medical Practitioner, Canberra

Conflicts of interest: John Dowden was Editor in Chief of Australian Prescriber from 1990 to 2022, including during the period the journal was published by NPS MedicineWise from 2002 to 2022.

 

References

1. Dartnell J, Cox D, Dawda P, Hill C. Quality use of medicines: who owns it now? Australian Prescriber 2024;47:72-4.
2. Commonwealth Department of Health, Housing and Community Services. A policy on the quality use of medicines. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health, Housing and Community Services; 1992.
3. Dowden JS. The National Prescribing Service. Aust Prescr 1998;21:30-1.
4. Department of Health and Aged Care. National Medicines Policy 2022. Canberra; 2022.

 

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