Pharmacy Daily | Reform emergency dispensing Acts

STATE and Territory governments are being urged to follow NSW Health's lead in granting pharmacists greater authority to dispense larger quantities of Prescription-Only during disasters.

NSW Health announced the pharmacists will be allowed to dispense standard Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) quantities and standard pack sizes of non-PBS medicines to patients affected by the bushfires without a prescription, where they are satisfied there is an urgent therapeutic need and getting a prescription is not practical (PD breaking news).

Welcoming the decision former Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) CEO, Shane Jackson, described the move as a "sensible decision by NSW Health to ensure medicines access during the bushfire emergency", in a Twitter post.

"Three days' supply is just not workable in these scenarios," he said.

"[The] next step is to address PBS issue - patients shouldn't be out of pocket for the costs of medicines because of these natural disasters - these emergency supply provisions for a standard PBS pack should be covered on the PBS, plain and simple."

PSA South Australia and Northern Territory Branch Vice President, Samuel Keitaanpaa, voiced his support to rolling out similar approaches across the country, in a post on Twitter.

"All State and Territories should now move to amend their Acts accordingly and set up approval templates," he said.

"Chief Health Officers gazetting start and end [dates] of special circumstances is not hard and it ensures pharmacists are legally protected when we act in the patients' interests."

PSA ACT Branch Committee Member, Olivia Collenette, called on ACT Health to follow NSW Health's lead.

"We should be able to do the same in the ACT," she said on Twitter.

"We're getting evacuees from the bushfires in NSW and we can do hardly anything for them.

"Our pharmacists want to help, but our hands are tied."

Pharmacy Guild of Australian NSW Branch President, David Heffernan, said the arrangements, which will remain in place until 31 Mar, unless revoked earlier, would allow pharmacists to be of greater assistance to patients in bushfire-affected areas.

"This is a great first step towards permanently expanding and streamlining the capacity of pharmacists all over Australia to assist patients with their prescription medicines in and after natural disasters," he said.

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) NSW Branch President, Peter Carroll, said the scale of the fire raging across the state had "resulted in unprecedented demand on pharmacists".

"We have heard many stories and first-hand examples of pharmacists going above and beyond in their support of their communities," he said.

"But up until now, the inability to supply more than three-days' supply of medicines to people has been an unacceptable barrier to accessing and providing care to people in these disaster-affected zones."