Pharmacists dispensing in an emergency provision situation

You may have to supply medicines using prescriptions written under emergency provisions.

When you receive an Authority prescription written under the emergency provision arrangements, you need to ensure that the:

  • quantity and repeats do not exceed the listed quantity and repeats in the PBS Schedule
  • prescription is endorsed with ‘Emergency authorised by Services Australia’
  • the date and time of the call are recorded on the prescription.

In addition, for Highly Specialised Drug Authority required items, the prescription must also be endorsed with:

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

When dispensing a prescription which meets all of the requirements as listed above you will need to enter the emergency provision authority approval number, P9999RX.

You can’t dispense an authority prescription as a PBS-subsidised item without an authority approval annotated on the script.

Page last updated: 16 December 2022.
QC 33991