13/03/2024
Hello good people, there seems to be some misunderstanding out there about the prescription of many pain medications so I would like to help to clear it up. As many of you would know, there have been increasing restrictions on the prescription of opioid medication over the last 5 years. In February 2018, Panadeine and other codeine-containing medicines and Digesic used to be available over the counter without a prescription. Since February 2018, Panadeine became a prescription-only drug and Digesic was removed from the market altogether. Another major change to prescribing started in Victoria in 2020 (with other states following in 2022) with the introduction of Safescript. Safescript is an online tool for "real-time prescription monitoring" and it is mandatory for all doctors to log into Safescript to look to see if a patient has had previous prescriptions of certain monitored drugs, particularly opioids like Panadeine forte, Palexia, Norspan etc. Last year, gabapentin, pregabalin and Tramadol were added to the Safescript monitored drugs. By law, doctors have to check Safescript when prescribing a lot of the medications that are commonly used for treating pain. If a doctor sees that you have had a lot of prescriptions for opioids, they may have to ask you about it , to demonstrate that they are being careful. Doctors usually do not check Safescript because they think you are a drug addict; they do it because they don't want to face disciplinary action such as losing their medical registration. The reason for the existence of Safescript is to prevent drug-related deaths so we all have to understand that even though it is inconvenient and may seem insulting, it is intended to protect patients like you from harm.
