Bitter pill for chemists
DOCTORS have turned on chemists for campaigning to retain the right to sell codeine products over the counter.
The nation’s peak GP group says the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia is trying to buy a change in the policy through $340,000 in donations to political parties.
From February next year over the counter products containing codeine, including cold and flu capsules, panadeine and nurofen plus, will be made prescription only because of evidence they are addictive and kill 100 people a year.
More than six million codeine products are sold over the counter each year. Chemists stand to lose $120 million in sales if the law changes.
“They are trying to introduce policy by chequebook by donating large amounts to state and federal parties to gain open access to decision makers,” Dr Bastian Seidel, president of the Royal Australian College of GPs said.
The College and four other expert health groups have written to state health ministers pleading with them to reject the Guild’s bid to change the policy, accusing it of putting profits ahead of patients.
The Guild wants chemists to be able to continue supplying the codeine medicines without a script for the temporary treatment of acute (not chronic) pain under a strict protocol.
The National President of the Pharmacy Guild, George Tambassis, says doctors’ practices and emergency departments will be clogged with people seeking help for headache, toothache and menstrual pain if the law changes.
It says far from being motivated by commercial interests it has paid for a real time recording platform to track over the counter codeine sales.
“The Guild provides bipartisan support to the major political parties by attending and sponsoring events and functions. These are fully reported, recorded and published by the AEC. We reject the slur that this is buying political influence,” a spokesman for the Guild said.
Painaustralia CEO Carol Bennett said instead of pills, Australia needs a co-ordinated pain management strategy.
Patients must wait more than three years to see expert pain doctors in some areas, she said.
Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Japan all require a prescription for codeine containing medicines.
Canada is also considering introducing similar laws.