Alert on behalf of Pharmaceutical Services Unit

The Pharmacy Council of NSW have been asked by the Pharmaceutical Services Unit to circulate the following alert to all NSW pharmacists.

Forged prescriptions continue to circulate in NSW pharmacies

Pharmacists are reminded to apply professional judgement and caution when receiving requests from unfamiliar prescribers, whether by phone, fax or email.

Extra caution is needed if the request is for:

dispensing of Schedule 4 Appendix D (S4D) or Schedule 8 (S8) medicines
a new patient
a patient who needs the medicine urgently and is unable to present a valid prescription
high strength and/or large quantities.

Forgery activity currently targeting NSW pharmacies

NSW Police advise that a female individual is using forged prescriptions to obtain large quantities of Panadeine Forte^® and tramadol from pharmacies across NSW. Requests to pharmacists are via phone, fax or email for these medicines.

It is reported that pharmacies are being contacted by staff claiming to be from a ‘medical practice’ (often stated as the National Telemedicine Doctors) requesting the medicine(s) be dispensed with a prescription to follow. Any prescription subsequently provided has been forged. These forged prescriptions share several recurring characteristics:

the patient is female
the address provided is usually in the suburb of Mount Annan
the prescriber name is Dr Damien Ford*
the request is for high strength tramadol and large quantities of paracetamol with codeine products

*Dr Damien Ford is a registered medical practitioner whose details are being fraudulently used in this forgery.

What to do if you receive a request or suspect a forged prescription

If presented with a suspected forgery or the situation described above:

Do not dispense the medicine. Contact the prescriber to confirm the legitimacy of the prescription ensuring the prescriber's contact details are obtianed independently.
You may also check SafeScript NSW for a record of the prescribing event (in cases where the prescription is computer generated)
If you suspect the prescription is forged do not dispense the medicine. Instead, discretely call your local police station.

If the forgery relates to the one listed above, you can also contact Mark Portelli, Chief Investigating Police Officer, on 02 9784 9357.

Further advice is available here.

Regards,

Pharmaceutical Services

NSW Ministry of Health

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health.nsw.gov.au/pharmaceutical