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Real-time alert tool should be compulsory: Pharmacy Guild
Karen Dearne | July 29, 2009
AN online alert tool used to detect and prevent sales of pseudoephedrine should be made mandatory nationwide, and extended to other medications that may be abused, Pharmacy Guild president Kos Sclavos says.
The tool, Project Stop, is used by pharmacists to identify people suspected of diverting pseudoephedrine purchases to the illegal drug trade.
Earlier this month, the Queensland Government mandated real-time electronic reporting of all sales of products containing pseudoephedrine, commonly bought in bulk by criminals as a precursor ingredient in the backyard manufacture of illegal drugs.
Mr Sclavos said pharmacists participating in the program had denied sales on tens of thousands of occasions since Project Stop was released in Queensland in November 2005.
The program has been running on a voluntary basis nationally for the past two years.
"Project Stop is a decision support tool that allows the pharmacist to check whether it is appropriate to hand over the product," he told the National Press Club in Canberra.
"It has worked well in the fight against drug abuse, and it's time for it to be made mandatory nationwide."
The tool could also be used to monitor sales of pharmacy-only medicines containing codeine, and for highly addictive controlled drugs that are only available to people holding a special authority prescription.
"Codeine-based products are safe and effective for minor ailments, but patients can develop dependencies," Mr Sclavos said. "Controlled drugs are subject to recording requirements by federal and state governments, but these reports only get analysed weeks later.
"Pharmacists need to know at the time of dispensing whether it is appropriate to supply those drugs."
Mr Sclavos touted a range of Guild health IT initiatives, including a commitment to near-universal e-prescribing within five years, ahead of its negotiations over the fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement with the federal government.
"Community pharmacy is a $12 billion a year health industry, and about 70 per cent of that comes directly from dispensing prescription medicines," he said. "That's about 250 million scripts a year."
The Australian