Letters
Health services administration
Volume 193 - Issue 1

National registration of health professionals: could it presage national regulation of Schedule 8 medicines?

Author:  Colin M Brown

Med J Aust 2010; 193 (1): 59. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2010.tb03748.x
Published online: 5 July 2010
Download PDF (61 KB)
Share: Share on Blue Sky Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share by email

To the Editor: The arrival of national registration of health professionals on 1 July 2010, and consequential amendments to state and territory legislation, overcomes registration and recognition complexities currently facing Australian medical practitioners who wish to practise in multiple jurisdictions.

However, national registration stops short of removing current inconsistencies among state and territory laws in various areas of medicine — including those that regulate prescription of Schedule 8 (S8) medicines. Despite recognition of S8 restrictions in every part of the country, medical practitioners potentially need to have a working knowledge of up to eight separate sets of controlled substances laws when prescribing S8 medicines.

Imagine a general practitioner providing a morphine prescription with repeats to a couple caravanning around Australia for 3 months. That prescription may need to comply with the laws of each jurisdiction as to what details need to be included on the prescription form. Getting it wrong could result in significant delay and inconvenience for the holidaymakers if the pharmacist refused to dispense the prescription because it didn’t comply with local laws. For example, in South Australia a prescription for a drug of dependence must not be dispensed by a pharmacist if the patient’s date of birth is not included on the prescription form1 — yet there is no similar requirement in New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria or the Australian Capital Territory.2-5 Conceivably, through unawareness or habit, a prescriber in one of the latter jurisdictions might omit a patient’s date of birth from a relevant prescription form, leading to problems for the patient when travelling in other states. Granted, such a situation could be corrected with a few phone calls or faxes, but in a busy practice, who has time to be repeating tasks?

National regulation of health practice (achievable through referral of powers or harmonising state and territory laws) — in this case, the prescription of S8 medicines — would logically complement national registration and help maximise anticipated benefits after 1 July 2010.

Author

  • Colin M Brown1
  • 1. Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia, Drugs of Dependence Unit, Adelaide, SA.

Correspondence: colin.brown@health.sa.gov.au

Competing interests

I am a member of the Law Society of South Australia.

Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this letter are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia or the SA government.

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library