Federal crackdown on scripts for painkillers and antibiotics

Patients face restrictions on ­antibiotics and painkillers in a move to prevent prescription drug misuse.

Patients face restrictions on ­antibiotics and painkillers as the federal government moves to prevent the growth of prescription drug misuse.

Patients face restrictions on ­antibiotics and painkillers as the federal government moves to prevent prescription drug misuse becoming a community-wide problem.

Last week, the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved smaller pack sizes being made available for immediate-release prescription opioids from January. It is expected to reduce the risk of patients becoming ­addicted to painkillers.

Warning labels will also be overhauled, and fentanyl — ­responsible for an epidemic of ­addiction in the US — will be ­restricted to patients with cancer, in palliative care and some exceptional circumstances.

“Pharmaceutical opioids are now responsible for far more deaths and poisoning hospitalisations in Australian than illegal opioids such as heroin,” the TGA said. “Every day in Australia, nearly 150 hospitalisations and 14 emergency department admissions ­involve opioid harm, and three people die from drug-induced deaths involving opioid use.”

The move, which follows ­codeine being made script-only last year, will renew calls for a greater focus on treatments and strategies for those with chronic pain. Experts engaged by the ­Department of Health have also considered changes to prescribing rules for antibiotics that may restrict or remove doctors’ ability to prescribe repeats.

There is concern that the misuse of antibiotics is fuelling resistance in bacteria known as superbugs.

A department spokeswoman said yesterday the Pharmaceutical Benefit Advisory Committee considered the issue at its August meeting. Its decision has not been made public.

Moves towards a crackdown come after data revealed about 50 per cent of prescriptions were issued with repeats, raising the risk that antibiotics — even those prescribed correctly — would be misused.

Antibiotic-resistance bacteria make infections harder if not impossible to treat, and are a growing problem for patients and health systems around the world. In Australia, aged-care facilities and remote indigenous communities have become hotbeds of resistance.