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New ‘SafeScript’ Laws Passed in Victoria

Female pharmacist holding medicine bottle giving advice to customer in chemist shop or pharmacy

In an effort to combat misuse and abuse of prescription medicines, the Victoria Government late last year passed new laws to support a real-time prescription monitoring system to be called SafeScript. The Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Real-time Prescription Monitoring) Bill allows doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists to access a database to review the prescription history of a patient under care.

The Victorian Government has invested almost $30 million to implement SafeScript which will include developing the software and training health professionals. Described as a clinical decision support system, SafeScript aims to provide health professionals with information which will enable them to make informed decisions regarding the prescription of high-risk medication.

All Schedule 8 medicines such as oxycodone, morphine and dexamphetamine will be monitored in SafeScript along with some Schedule 4 prescription medicines including benzodiazepines. Codeine may be included at a later stage once the healthcare industry has adjusted to previously available over-the-counter codeine containing products becoming available only on prescription in February 2018.

How it works

Pharmacy dispensing records for certain medicines will be transmitted to a centralised database which can be then accessed by health professionals during consultations by logging on to a secure web portal. Information to be recorded in SafeScript will include patient name and address, as well as doctor and pharmacy details and the medicines supplied. The targeted medicines to be included in the system are those which have been found to cause the greatest harm through misuse.

Through checks on medication history, SafeScript aims to prevent patients ‘doctor shopping’ and allow for earlier identification of patients who may be developing an addiction to prescription medicines. GPs and other health professionals can then refer patients for counselling and other suitable treatments. At the point of dispensing, pharmacists can access SafeScript to determine whether or not they should dispense. Only users with the correct security credentials can access the SafeScript Database. The Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services has access to the database to oversee the appropriate supply of medicines. Patient searches by GPs and pharmacists and may be subject to audit to monitor inappropriate use of the SafeScript computer software.

The SafeScript software system is expected to roll out from the end of this year to more than 1900 medical clinics, 1300 pharmacies and 200 hospitals across the state of Victoria.  Once fully implemented it will be mandatory for prescribers and pharmacists to check SafeScript before writing scripts or dispensing high risk medicine with some exemptions for low risk patients such as aged care residents.

More information about SafeScript can be obtained from the Victorian State Government’s Department of Health and Human Services.