THE Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has called for an end to the highly bureaucratic, time-consuming and expensive process for prescribing medicinal cannabis products for Australian patients.
RACGP president Dr Bastian Seidel said a consistent national regulatory framework for prescribing medicinal cannabis products would help ensure patient welfare is at the centre of this difficult and rapidly evolving area of medicine.
"The current process of prescribing medicinal cannabis products in Australia differs significantly in every state and territory, which does not make sense," Seidel said.
"Australia's state Health Ministers must agree on a nationally consistent regulatory framework that will create a single-step approval process.
"This will significantly benefit frustrated GPs and their patients.
Seidel qualified that while the regulatory and prescribing regime had to be robust to ensure only appropriate clinical access within the confines of the legislation, "patients and doctors should not have to jump through hoops and wait months to access a drug that may improve a patient's quality of life".
He urged the Health Ministers to implement the RACGP's recommendations at next month's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.
"Our political leaders have an opportunity to implement a framework that will cut the red tape that is currently strangling the process for specialist GPs and their patients," he argued.
"This has the potential to improve patient safety and reduce variation because of different jurisdictional processes of states and territories.
See the RACGP position statement at racgp.org.au.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 08 Mar 18
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 08 Mar 18
