Petition demands government action on medicine shortages for the nation’s most vulnerable

Ongoing shortages of essential medicines for Australia’s most vulnerable are having a devastating impact on patients and the clinicians who care for them.

“Patients are suffering unnecessarily, enduring heightened pain and distress, because the medications that typically control their symptoms are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive,” said Dr Peter Allcroft, Chair, Palliative Care Australia.

“I am even aware of people ending up in hospital as a result of not being able to access the medicines they need – adding to the distress families feel and placing further pressure on our overstretched hospital system.”

Despite sector representations to Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and the Department of Health and Aged Care, there has been little progress toward ensuring a stable supply of these life-changing drugs.

“A collective of seven organisations wrote to parliamentarians in early December trying to escalate this issue after months and months of slow or no progress, people, including children are dying without adequate pain relief,” Dr Allcroft asserted.

In fact, the situation has been building for several years and has become especially challenging in the past 12 months as global supply chains falter and reprioritise.

Most of the affected medicines are vital opioid analgesics that have been used for decades to manage severe pain and other symptoms in palliative care patients. With the supply of these drugs becoming increasingly uncertain, clinicians are forced to prescribe less effective alternatives, resulting in less reliable pain relief and risking unwanted side effects.

Adding to the distress is cost, with many of the alternative medications not subsidised through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). One of the most startling examples is hydromorphone SR, which costs the public $182 for 32mg. The overseas alternative, which is not PBS-listed, is $4209 for 100 tablets – 23 times more expensive.

As part of the ‘better access to palliative care’ campaign leading up to the federal election, PCA has launched an 11 point plan to resolve this ongoing issue.

“Those responsible seem stuck for answers, so we have collaborated with our members and six other leading health and care organisations to help lead the way,” Dr Allcroft said. “Our recommendations centre on establishing a national stockpile of critical medicines, fostering domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing, strengthening the PBS, and empowering the TGA.

“400 people die every day of a terminal illness; limited or no access to these critical medications has a ripple effect through families and communities – it can leave loved ones with lifelong trauma.”

So far, close to 20,000 people have signed the ‘better access to palliative care’ petition, with more signatures every day.

“Australians want action on this and are supporting our plan in the run up to the election,” Dr Allcroft emphasised. “We remain hopeful that those who want to make up the 48^th parliament of Australia will respond and work with us to fix this so that quality of life at the end of life can be delivered to every Australian.”

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