Queensland Health has signed a contract with pharmacy software vendor Fred IT to build a new real-time prescription monitoring system for the state dubbed QScript, which is due to be rolled out in the second half of the year.
South Australia has also recently gone to tender for a new system, with the winning bidder expected to be announced at the end of this month.
Queensland passed amendments to its poisons and medicines law in September 2019 allowing the introduction of RTPM. According to HWL Ebsworth partner Katharine Philp, the law states that a failure by a prescriber or dispenser to check the database before prescribing or dispensing a monitored medicine will be an offence with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units, or $2669.
