PAINAUSTRALIA is calling for better education and awareness around opioid use, in light of evidence of significant harms and increasing use of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain.
Painaustralia ceo Carol Bennett said, "In our submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration consultation paper on options for a regulatory response to opioid use and misuse in Australia, we have called for better understanding of quality use of medicines and best-practice pain management for both prescribers and consumers, as part of a national pain strategy."
Bennett added that prescribers need to be equipped with tools to deliver best-practice pain medicine, which should be part of core training and Continuing Professional Development, while consumers need the knowledge to seek out the best pain management options to suit individual needs.
Visit painaustralia.org.au to download the TGA submission.
MEANWHILE the organisation also flagged its support for SafeScript, the real-time monitoring system being developed for Victoria, saying it has the potential to set the benchmark for a national real-time monitoring system and help identify people with chronic pain in need of urgent assistance.
This was also one of the Pharmacy Guild's main thrusts in its submission to the TGA opioid consultation (PD Mon).
Painaustralia made this a key position in its submission to the Victorian Government on the Regulatory Impact Statement and Proposed Regulations for SafeScript which is being developed by Guild offshoot FRED IT - CLICK HERE.
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