Pharmacy Daily | Real-time monitoring call

The death of a nurse due to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs has led to a new call for real-time monitoring by Brisbane coroner Christine Clements. Clements earlier this week released a report into the tragic 2013 death of 30-year-old Katie Lee Howman from an overdose of selfadministered fentanyl. Although never prescribed the drug, Howman had an escalating history of oxycodone and tramadol use which could have raised suspicions about dependency. Among several recommendations the coroner urged the introduction of systems by which AHPRA could regularly monitor PBS records, in order to detect “doctor-shopping”. “The deficiency in the existing information systems is that they are reliant on a doctor or pharmacist forming a suspicion prompting a request for information, and the information is not available in real time,” the coroner wrote. She cited the undoubted “huge human and fiscal cost in the way the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is currently being misused to source and subsidise controlled drugs and drugs of dependence”. Clements said statutory changes should be made to enable real-time access to relevant prescription and doctor attendance history. She also highlighted the situation in Tasmania and the NT where real-time systems are helping to inform decision-making, and the NZ where information of concern is forwarded to the treating physician.

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