CHANGES to prescribing practices for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation PBS listed medicines will improve medicines safety, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President, Associate Professor Chris Freeman, believes.
With new requirements coming into force from 01 Feb, most prescriptions supplied on the PBS and the RPBS will need to describe the medication by its active ingredient to be eligible for a subsidy.
Freeman said the shift in practice was unlikely to significantly impact pharmacists' workflow, and he urged them to discuss the active ingredient when talking to patients.
"Pharmacists have an important role to play when it comes to explaining to patients why their prescriptions may look different," he said.
"When these changes come into effect it is critical that pharmacy staff are prepared to have the necessary conversations with patients and continue to provide information about the brand options available to them.
"It may take some time for patients to get use to describing their medicines by the active ingredient names, however in the longer term it will improve medication safety by reducing potential confusion of multiple brands of the same active ingredient."
Under the new regulations there will be a six-month grace period, during which pharmacists will be required to contact prescribers who issue scripts that do not contain active ingredient names, to ask them to reissue prescriptions in accordance with the new format.
However, pharmacists will not be penalised when making a claim through the PBS, if the prescriber is unable to issue a compliant script.
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