GROWING shortages of essential medicines have driven Palliative Care Australia (PCA), in collaboration with other health and care organisations, to campaign for better access to palliative care.
"Those responsible seem stuck for answers, so we have collaborated with our members and six other leading health and care organisations to help lead the way," said Dr Peter Allcroft, Chair, Palliative Care Australia.
Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) are among the collaborators.
As part of the campaign, PCA has launched an 11-point plan to resolve this ongoing issue, with recommendations centring on establishing a national stockpile of critical medicines, fostering domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing, strengthening the PBS and empowering the TGA.
The shortages are having a devastating impact on patients, especially those nearing the end of life, and the clinicians who care forthem.
"Patients are suffering unnecessarily, enduring heightened pain and distress, because the medications that typically control their symptoms are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive," Dr Allcroft said.
Most of the affected medicines are opioid analgesics that have been used for decades to manage severe pain and other symptoms in palliative care patients.
With the supply of these drugs becoming increasingly uncertain, clinicians are forced to prescribe less effective alternatives, resulting in less reliable pain relief and risking unwanted side effects.
Many of the alternative medications are not subsidised through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and cost a lot more.
One example is hydromorphone SR, which costs the public $182 for 100 tablets, while the non-PBS-listed alternative costs $4,209 for 100 tablets.
Despite sector representations to the Minister for Health, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the Department of Health and Aged Care, Dr Allcroft said there has been little progress toward ensuring a stable supply of these life-changing drugs.
"Around 400 people die every day of a terminal illness; limited or no access to these critical medications has a ripple effect through families and communities - it can leave loved ones with lifelong trauma," said Dr Allcroft.
"We remain hopeful that those who want to make up the 48th parliament of Australia will respond and work with us to fix this so that quality of life at the end of life can be delivered to every Australian."
The 11-point plan forms part of Palliative Care Australia's 2025 Federal Election Platform and can be viewed and downloaded HERE.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 19 Feb 25
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