Pharmacy Daily | Weekly Comment 03 Jul 23

WELCOME to Pharmacy Daily's weekly comment feature. This week's contributor is Catherine Koetz, Director - Healthcare, GS1 Australia

Barcode concerns

With so many challenges continuing to face community pharmacy and the wider pharmacy sector, it is easy to miss some of the changes that are slowly occurring in the background.

In Jan 2023, a new standard for the barcoding of medicines came into effect and we are already seeing an increased number of 2D DataMatrix barcodes appearing on medicines' packs.

The main reason for the introduction of the new barcode is to help with the overall visibility and traceability of medicines across Australia, but more importantly, they also support other areas of the supply chain and patient and consumer safety.

Though most dispensing software and scanners can use these barcodes in the dispensing process, we know that there are still some challenges in ensuring that the barcodes can scan the first time every time and in ensuring that the main identifier in the traditional barcode (commonly known as the EAN) is the same as the one in the new 2D one -if you come across barcode issues report it HERE.