Page 2198 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2018
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assist our health professional workforce by further reducing the impacts of controlled medicine abuse and misuse, and protecting our community.
This bill will enable doctors and pharmacists to access and use information in ACT Health’s existing drugs and poisons information system, otherwise known as DAPIS, to inform and support better patient care. DAPIS has been in use in the ACT since 2014 and stores information about controlled medicines, prescribing approvals and dispensing records. Pharmacists are mandated to report the supply to DAPIS at least weekly.
The coronial inquiry into the death of Mr Paul Fennessy recommended that a real-time monitoring system be implemented in the ACT. This bill establishes the legislative framework for such a system to be implemented. Early next year the first steps towards a real-time system will be available to clinicians to assist in their decision-making for patient care.
Under these amendments, health professionals will be able to access limited information about their patient in DAPIS. This DAPIS online remote access portal, known as DORA, will enable prescribers and dispensers to view the most up-to-date information about monitored medicines that have been supplied to their patients from any pharmacy within the ACT.
The ACT aims to mirror the success of Tasmania, having had DORA in place since 2011. The system there is voluntary but highly regarded by health professionals. In Tasmania the use of DORA has been linked to a reduction in opioid-related deaths, from 33 in 2007 to 15 in 2013.
Having access to this information will help health professionals to identify potential abuse and misuse of medicines that can place patients or the broader community at risk of harm, with the aim of reducing deaths to zero. This will enable health professionals to take early action to refer at-risk patients for appropriate treatment. It will also reduce the risk of harm to the broader community by preventing diversion of medicines following doctor-shopping activities.
At this stage the use of DORA by health practitioners will be voluntary. We have planned an extensive engagement and education campaign, based on advice from an existing stakeholder engagement group, to encourage uptake of the system by health professionals in general practice and pharmacies.
It is already mandatory for prescribers to seek approval to prescribe controlled medicines in certain circumstances and for pharmacies to report dispensing records to ACT Health each week. ACT Health will also be adding a new declaration to its approval application form, requiring prescribers to declare whether they have checked DORA prior to seeking approval to prescribe a controlled medicine for their patient.
I am aware that the Canberra community take their privacy and access to their health records seriously. In developing this bill, the privacy of patients being prescribed or supplied these monitored medicines has been very carefully considered. To help ensure patient privacy and integrity of the DORA system, additional protections have
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