Interstate dispensing: a case for uniform, intuitive legislation

Australian health practitioner registration is national, whereas legislation regarding the handling of medicines is governed by individual States and Territories. To align with the July 2010 national registration scheme some legislative modifications were made concerning scheduled drugs and poisons, but many differences between jurisdictions remain. In Queensland, the Health (Drugs and Poisons) Regulation 1996 (Qld) allows for dispensing of controlled drugs written by interstate prescribers but not lower scheduled specified restricted and regulated restricted drugs. The aim of this study was to assess awareness of seemingly counterintuitive legislation by pharmacists practising in South-East Queensland. Of 125 Gold Coast pharmacies contacted, 54 (43.2%) agreed to participate. The majority of pharmacists (88.9%) had good knowledge regarding controlled drugs. In contrast, they demonstrated confusion regarding specified restricted and regulated restricted drugs (51.9% correct awareness). Uniform legislation between jurisdictions or more intuitive legislation would ease practitioner confusion.