The Federal Government will set up a new $5 million national electronic records system to combat abuse of controlled drugs including prescription painkillers.

The Electronic Recording and Reporting of Controlled Drugs system will be made available to doctors, pharmacists and state and territory health authorities across Australia to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of addictive drugs in real time. 

 

The  system was  developed and implemented by the Tasmanian Government over a year ago, and the Federal Government has signed a licensing agreement with the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services to make a nationalised system available to states and territories, which are responsible for monitoring controlled drugs, from July this year.

Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek said that controlled drugs such as oxycodone, morphine and codeine play an important clinical role in managing pain, but abuse of these drugs  is a growing problem in the community.

“Following calls from coroners, law enforcers and consumer groups for greater control over distribution of the drugs, the Gillard Government is pleased to be making this electronic system available.”

Ms Plibersek said health professionals and administrators will be able to immediately detect people suspected, for example, of trafficking in painkillers, forging prescriptions and “doctor-shopping.”

The new records system will be able to flag patients in real time who have repeatedly sought controlled drugs, helping to prevent people from inappropriately using the drugs or selling them to others.

Health professionals will be able to access a centralised database over a secure computer network, which will contain prescription history records.

If a pharmacist determines it is not clinically appropriate to dispense a medicine to a patient, it is their duty of care to restrict access to that patient.

This information will enable state and territory health department regulators, pharmacists and prescribers to minimise the abuse of these medicines while also ensuring necessary access for consumers who have a legitimate need for these important medicines.

The amount of prescription opioids used in Australia is growing. According to the Internal Medicine Journal, the total value of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme opioid prescriptions increased from $2 million in 1992 to $7 million in 2007.

Currently, some states use paper-based prescription records, which are slow and require significant resourcing, while electronic recording in others states is inconsistent between jurisdictions. A national electronic system will allow pharmacists to check on prescription records from other states.

Drugs that will be monitored on the system are listed under Schedule 8 of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons, which is administered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.