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Council News March 2021
Council Message
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2021, and on behalf of the Council, Happy New Year and all the best for 2021. On 1 February we saw the requirement for Active Ingredient Prescribing for PBS & RPBS prescriptions introduced under new legislation, with a 6-month grace period expiring on 31 July 2021 to support pharmacists and consumers in the transition. The National Prescribing Service provides some useful support materials for both prescribers, pharmacists and consumers.
In this issue we include an article on emergency supply. This is an area which seems to result in an amount of confusion and an area that results in a number complaints to the Council.
We also include an article which details mandatory notifications and how this applies in practice, a case study based on a nurse matter that sends a strong message to all health practitioners and a link to an article about compounding published by the Medical Council of NSW.
We also welcome Rick Samimi as our new member of Council and congratulate him on his recent appointment.
Dr Joyce Cooper
President
Practical Tips - Emergency Supply
'My patient has run out of their medication and doesn’t have a script but needs the medication today. I don’t want them to go without - what are my obligations and what can I do?'
The issue of the request for or the supply of a medication without a physical prescription is one which continues to cause much confusion. There is no provision in the legislation permitting a prescription to be “owed”, and the understanding of obligations for various forms of prescriptions may not be consistent across the profession of pharmacy.
Case Study - Your duty to be open and candid
HCCC v Ford
This month we draw your attention to a case involving a nurse who admitted to forging prescriptions on pads stolen from two medical practitioners. The prescriptions were for opioids and benzodiazepines, and the fact that they were forgeries was detected by the pharmacist to whom they were presented through the process of verifying their validity with the purported prescribers.
The nurse was subject to regulatory action, and subsequently did not renew her registration. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) ordered that, had the practitioner still been registered as a nurse, her registration would have been cancelled for a period of 18 months.
Compounding – the role of the Prescriber
In 2017, a Joint Statement was issued by the Medical and Pharmacy Boards of Australia to remind medical practitioners and pharmacists of their respective responsibilities relating to the prescribing and supply of compounded medicines.
This month the Medical Council of NSW published an article reminding medical practitioners of the regulatory framework governing medicines in Australia, the circumstances when a compounded product may be appropriate and the factors that need to be taken into consideration when prescribing such a product.
To read about compounding from the prescribers perspective or to refresh your own understanding click the link below to access the article.
Tough love – mandatory notifications
Health practitioners are traditionally reluctant to make mandatory notifications for various reasons. These include a fear of becoming a part of a drawn out legal process or a perception that they are ‘dobbing in’ their peers or fellow health practitioners. It can be a challenging dilemma. However, health practitioners are often well placed to identify other colleagues who pose a risk to patients.
Under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW), health practitioners (including pharmacists) must tell Ahpra if they have formed a reasonable belief that a practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes notifiable conduct.
Notifiable conduct by a registered health practitioner is:
- practising while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs
- sexual misconduct in the practice of the profession
- placing the public at substantial risk of harm because of an impairment (health issue), or
- placing the public at risk because of a significant departure from acceptable professional standards.
Meet Rick Samimi - new Council Member
In February, the Council welcomed Rick Samimi as a pharmacist practitioner member of the Council.
Rick is a graduate of the University of Sydney and has been a registered pharmacist since 1991. He has completed a Master of Commerce (UNSW) and a Graduate Diploma in Natural Medicines and has been involved with Ahpra & the previous Pharmacy Board of NSW in various capacities since 2003. Rick is currently an Honorary Professional Fellow, Industry Advisory Board member and occasional lecturer at the UTS School of Pharmacy. He is also a member of his local Primary Health Network’s Clinical Council. A past President of the NSW Pharmacy Guild, and past National Vice President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Rick was recently re-elected to the Branch Committee of the Guild in NSW.
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