09+L05

=PEL Core Topics - Law=

//understanding the emergency supply legislation relating to S4 and S8? ( //Controlled Substances Act 1984 or The Pharmacists Act 1991//)//

Under urgent supply provisions and where State laws allow, a medical or dental practitioner may telephone or fax a prescription through to an approved pharmacist in order to authorise immediate supply of the pharmaceutical benefit. The medical or dental practitioner must then forward the prescription within seven days of the date of request to the pharmacist who supplied the pharmaceutical benefit. While a medical or dental practitioner can have a person under his/her direction fax a prescription, only the medical or dental practitioner can telephone a prescription. These provisions also apply to authority prescriptions when the medical practitioner has obtained prior authority approval from Medicare Australia. The authority prescription must be endorsed with the authority approval number and be forwarded to the pharmacist within seven days. No provision exists to pay for authority prescriptions supplied before authority approval has been granted.
 * S4 medications**

(3) Despite subregulation (1)(d), if a pharmacist or medical practitioner is satisfied that a person— (a) has lost a previously dispensed supply of a drug; or (b) will, through absence from the State or otherwise, find it unduly difficult to have future supplies of a drug dispensed as needed, he or she may (but is not obliged to) dispense a prescription for the person at an interval earlier than that specified on the prescription. (4) If, pursuant to subregulation (3), a pharmacist or medical practitioner dispenses a drug of dependence at an earlier interval than that specified on the prescription, the pharmacist or practitioner must notify the prescriber of that fact in writing.
 * Controlled substances**

Resources
[|Medicare Australia - Urgent supply]