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Australian states are looking to implement real-time prescription monitoring to control prescription drug overdoses and deaths caused by prescription drug use which it is believed causes the death of around 800 Australians per year. The new system, named Drugs and Poisons Information System Online Remote Access or "DORA", will be opt in initially until a national scheme is established. This is the second drug control related system to be introduced by the government to combat prescription drug abuse, or so it is claimed.
In 2018 codeine based medicine was restricted to prescription only, ending the decades of over the counter availability of this common drug used for combating pain. Some people consider the deaths of a few hundred people to be just an excuse to put these systems in place.
Will these systems prevent people's privacy from being violated? Will Australians be forced to have a MyHealthRecord in order to be able to get a prescription filled? What is the end game here? Only time will tell because our government is not saying.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday July 12 2018, @10:44AM (1 child)
Doesn't mean companies can't wring extra dollars out of the taxpayer. Just means that it's harder, as you don't have people saying "give me your wallet or die".
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 12 2018, @07:39PM
I'm not sure about Australia, but here in NZ we have an agency called Pharmac which does the drug buying for the whole national health system. When the drug companies try to jack their prices up, Pharmac says "next"!
It's one of the reasons we were happy your Mr. Trump took you lot out of the TPP trade agreement. One of the terms seemed to be something along the lines of forcing us to accept whatever pricing the companies offered.