UPDATE 2.49pm: ABOUT a third of the 28 doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists based in Maryborough are involved in a program aimed at reducing misuse of prescription drugs.
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The director of the Victorian government’s SafeScript initiative, Matthew McCrone, said all 28 of the professionals who had registered their primary place of practice as Maryborough were contacted about the opportunity to get involved.
He said the several emails were sent to the addresses the doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists had registered with their respective boards, containing links to a registration page.
“Registration takes less than five minutes,” Mr McCrone said.
“About a third of those people had registered, as of this morning.”
Even fewer had registered for a face-to-face training session in Maryborough this month about using the SafeScript software and acting upon the information provided.
“We’ve only got one person, to date, registered for that training,” Mr McCrone said.
Ideally, he would like all 28 of the registered practitioners in Maryborough to attend.
“It’s not just about IT… the IT is just half the job,” Mr McCrone said of SafeScript.
He said the training program covered clinical skills such as safer prescribing, scaling down doses if they’re too high, and introducing non-medicinal treatments for pain.
It also covered ‘soft skills’ such as how to have difficult conversations with patients.
“That’s probably the toughest part of this – doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists will need to have these conversations they might not have had before,” Mr McCrone said.
“We have to focus equally on the patients and helping them, keeping them assured it's going to be okay.”
The training is primarily delivered online. Mr McCrone said the modules had been available since August.
“That training night really does cement the learnings from the online modules,” he said.
Asked why the program uptake in Maryborough had been limited, Mr McCrone said it ‘just takes time’ for awareness of the program to filter through the industry.
“Never before have doctors and pharmacists had this information available to them and it takes time,” he said.
“We’ve done all we can do to get the information out there.”
He said the staged roll-out, which started in the Western Victoria Primary Health Network today, gave people ample time to register, and become familiar with the SafeScript system before it became mandatory in 18 months.
Mr McCrone was hopeful checking the SafeScript system would be embedded in practices by April 2020.
Bendigo Community Health Services drug safety worker Bart McGill said any intervention or development that could help people experiencing substance abuse issues access support was a positive development.
“There’s a lot of room and opportunity for ensuring people get adequate support,” he said.
EARLIER: A REAL-TIME prescription monitoring system goes online in parts of western Victoria today, including Maryborough.
The SafeScript computer software centralises prescription records for some high-risk medicines in a database accessible to doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists.
The software aims to inform decisions about whether to prescribe or dispense high-risk medicines such as benzodiazepines, codeine, quetiapine, and zolpidem.
SafeScript goes online today at more than 400 sites across the Western Victoria Primary Health Network catchment area, which also includes Ararat, Ballarat, Geelong, Stawell and Warrnambool.
“Prescription medicine dependency doesn’t discriminate,” Mental Health Minister Martin Foley said.
“Thanks to SafeScript, doctors and pharmacists will have the critical information they need to keep their patients safe and prevent prescription medicine deaths.”
Eleven people died of drug-related causes in Maryborough and the Pyrenees region from 2012-16.
More than 400 people in Victoria died due to prescription medicine overdoses last year.
Deaths associated with prescription medicine misuse have outnumbered the road toll in Victoria for the past six years.
“Too many Victorians have died from the misuse of prescription medicines,” Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.
“We’ve listened to the experts, who say this is the most effective way of arresting the scourge of prescription medication overdoses.”
SafeScript will roll out statewide in 2019.
Real-time prescription monitoring system advocates Margaret and John Millington were at yesterday’s announcement at Ballarat Health Services.
The Millingtons lost their son Simon to a prescription medicine overdose in 2010.
The SafeScript roll-out will be accompanied by an awareness campaign highlighting the potential dangers posed by some prescription medications. It includes a hotline offering free, expert and confidential advice hotline – 1800 737 233.
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Emma D'Agostino
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
