ALMOST a week after the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) issued its first Serious Shortage Medicine Substitution Notice (SSMSN), pharmacists in Victoria and South Australia remain unable to provide alternative medications for patients.
Speaking during a Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) COVID-19 webinar last night, the Society's National President, Dr Chris Freeman, reiterated concerns that the system that has been introduced is overly complicated and slow to respond to shortages.
"The initiative is meant to help patients to continue to access their medicines without delay during times of medicines shortages," he said.
"Unfortunately, the way that it has been set up means that it's going to be very difficult to achieve its objective.
"The laws that govern medicines supply in each state and territory are different, and whether you're allowed to make the substitution will depend on which state or territory you're practicing in, and each territory may have implemented this slightly differently.
"So you're allowed to make the substitution [of metformin modified release 500 mg for either immediate-release metformin 500 mg or metformin modified-release 1,000 mg, depending on the prescribed dose (PD 15 May)], unless you're currently practicing in Victoria or South Australia, as neither state had issued the public health order required to enable substitution to occur."
Freeman the PSA and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia were continuing to work together to ensure state and territory authorities implement the necessary measures to facilitate substitution when required.
However, he noted "the current model is far too complicated, it's too slow to respond to shortages... it's inflexible and it doesn't take into account local shortages of supply".
"It's too bureaucratic in the sense that it's not allowing pharmacists to operate within our competency scope, which is really straightforward substitution of strengths and doses," he said.
Freeman added that the PSA's first priority was to ensure the current SSMSN model does not "create additional work for pharmacists on the ground".
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