AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Greg Williams and Sheena McKie, Clayton Utz
• authority required – the prescriber must obtain prior approval from Services Australia, either by phone or electronically, before prescribing. The PBS limits the maximum quantity and number of repeats per prescription, requiring the patient to return to their prescriber for reassessment before continuing treatment. 60-day prescriptions have been available for eligible patients since 1 September 2023. At the state and territory level, drugs and poisons leg- islation governs who may prescribe, what they may prescribe and under what conditions, particularly for Schedule 4 (prescription-only) and Schedule 8 (con- trolled drugs) medicines.
Dispensing is similarly regulated at the Common- wealth and state and territory level. Pharmacists must verify the validity of each prescription, confirm patient identity, and provide consumer medicine information at the point of dispensing. Pharmacies must maintain dispensing records for all scheduled medicines (not just PBS medicines) in accordance with state and territory requirements, typi- cally for a minimum retention period of two years.
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