Pharmacists dispensing in an emergency provision situation

For prescriptions written under the emergency provision arrangements you must:

• not exceed the maximum quantity and repeats listed in the PBS Schedule on the PBS website
• include the words Emergency authorised by the Services Australia Medicare Program
• note the time and date you tried to call.

For drugs on the Highly Specialised Drugs Program, you must include:

• the letters HSD
• the hospital provider number - not required for Community Access HSD
• the number of days of treatment.

You can’t write increased quantities and repeats above the PBS Schedule quantity under the emergency provision arrangements. You need to call back at a later time to get authority approval.

You can’t dispense prescriptions with no authority approval annotated as a PBS subsidised item.