Govt pain killer crack down
February 20, 2012
PHARMACISTS will be able to
better monitor and stop
prescription drug abuse, with a new
five million dollar electronic records
system that has been announced
by the Federal Government.
The Electronic Recording and
Reporting of Controlled Drugs
program is designed to help
combat abuse of controlled drugs
including prescription painkillers
and will monitor the prescribing
and dispensing of addictive drugs
in real time.
Access to the system’s
centralised database will be
provided to doctors, pharmacists
and health authorities across a
secure network which will
contain prescription history
records.
“While controlled drugs such as
oxycodone, morphine and codeine
play an important clinical role in
managing pain, abuse of these
drugs can cause enormous harm
and is a growing problem in the
community,” said the Minister for
Health, Tanya Plibersek.
“The new records system will be
able to flag patients in real time
who have repeatedly sought
controlled drugs, helping to
prevent people from
inappropriately using the drugs or
selling them to others.
“If a pharmacist determines it is
not clinically appropriate to
dispense a medicine to a patient, it
is their duty of care to restrict
access to that patient,” she added.
The system was first developed in
Tasmania and has been
operational there for more than
twelve months.
The new agreement will see the
program implemented across all
states and territories from July this
year.
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