FEDERAL MP, Julian Hill, has taken aim at the Government over its lack of "specific commitments" on medicines safety, close to six months after Health Minister, Greg Hunt, announced it would be a National Health Priority Area.
Speaking in the House of Representatives on Wed, Hill highlighted "flaws in our medicine safety system" stemming from doctors' "failure to inform and warn patients" of potential risks when prescribing off-label medicines.
"The Health Minister declared in July this year that medicine safety is a national health priority," he said.
"But it's almost six months on and there's no evidence that the Government has a plan or any specifics beyond the rhetoric.
"It looks as if the Minister needed an announcement to go to the conference so they dreamt this up."
Hill told the House that his daughter had been prescribed a medication without being told it was not approved by the TGA for the indication it was prescribed for, and suffered blood clots as a result.
"In Australia, the pharmacist does not know if a prescription is off label, so the pharmacists has no ability to warn or provide information about possible side-effects and the heightened risk that we all know will come," he said.
"I believe we should look at a system whereby pharmacists can simply be notified by a tick box from the doctor if a prescription is being given for a drug [off-label]."
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