Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 12 May 2017 | Page 4

News
Chemists bid to retain codeine sales
ANTONY SCHOLEFIELD
THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia
is lobbying for special exemptions
to allow pharmacies to keep sell-
ing over-the-counter codeine after
it is upscheduled to prescription-
only status.
Pharmacies will lose access to
the OTC codeine market, worth
$145 million a year, when prod-
ucts become prescription-only in
February 2018.
It has emerged that the guild,
which strongly opposes resched-
uling is negotiating with the Fed-
eral Government on proposals for
a new classification between S3
and S4.
This novel status, which is used
in New Zealand for some drugs,
would allow consumers to buy
OTC codeine products for acute
pain, as long as the pharmacy is
using a real-time monitoring sys-
tem.
A message from guild president
George Tambassis, posted on its
member-only website, advises
pharmacists to tell patients the
guild is working to keep codeine
products accessible without a pre-
scription.
Stockpiling alert
The Pharmacy Guild is a lone shag on a rock on this issue, says
Dr Ackermann.
“The guild has had initial, con-
structive discussions with govern-
ment at a high level about this
approach,” the message says.
GPs and pharmacists have been warned to
watch out for patients stockpiling codeine
products before the drug is rescheduled to
prescription-only in February 2018.
Some pharmacy customers with no
therapeutic need for codeine are buying
up codeine products to pass onto drug-
seeking patients, authorities say.
The Victorian Pharmacy Authority says
it has been tipped off about a scheme in
which a drug-seeker recruits people online
to buy codeine products and drop them off
in a letter box.
In its monthly update, the authority says
that the scheme — in which codeine-
buying ‘agents’ receive a commission —
appears to be operating in Melbourne and
may expand to other areas.
The authority is warning pharmacists
they are obliged to take “all reasonable
steps” to ensure that a customer has a
therapeutic need for codeine before every
sale.
Dr Evan Ackermann, chair of
the RACGP expert committee
on quality care, says the guild
is undermining the authority of
the TGA by continuing to push
against upscheduling.
“The Pharmacy Guild is a lone
shag on a rock on this issue; lots
Pay GPs on performance: former health boss In Brief
GEIR O’ROURKE Staff writers
GPs should be sending
results on patient outcomes
to the government so they
can be paid based on their
performance, a former Federal
Department of Health boss
says.
Labelling the Australian
primary care system a
“renovator’s opportunity”,
Dr Stephen Duckett (PhD)
says the government needs
to seize the moment of
unfreezing the Medicare
rebate to buy reform.
“Unfortunately, government
and