Guild opioid real-time push

THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia has reiterated its stance around a co-ordinated real-time monitoring system, as an essential way to deal effectively with opioid abuse and misuse in Australia.

The Guild has made a submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s consultation around S8 opioids (PD 22 Jan) - and says it does not believe any of the suggestions canvassed in the TGA’s discussion paper will effectively address the opioid crisis.

Options in the TGA discussion paper include changing pack sizes for opioids, reviewing indications, restricting higher dose products to authority prescribing, strengthening opioid product risk management plans, label and CMI reviews and additional regulatory controls.

In particular, the TGA is limited to recommending options within its power - and the implementation of a national nationally consistent system for monitoring prescribing and dispensing of controlled drugs, is in the purview of state and territory governments.

The Guild says governments and health professionals need to work together to implement real-time monitoring as a matter of urgency.

“The nationally coordinated real-time recording system must be mandatory and operate across all pharmacies and all doctors’ surgeries to be effective,” the Guild says, citing various moves since 2012 towards a national system which is still no closer to being implemented.

Other recommendations by the Guild include reviewing the Price Information Code of Practice, with some price lists promoting the availability of high quantities of opioid containing medicines “at substantially cheaper per unit prices than smaller packs”.

And finally the Guild has urged that a new Opioid Roundtable be convened, “to bring together all stakeholders to do whatever is in their respective powers to solve the problems of opioids in Australia”.