PDL members are kept notified via our regular email notices called Practice Alerts. We bring awareness to potential risks that could impede on the pharmacy profession. They are often sent reactively, from trends and incident reports conducted by PDL and other influencing bodies, in a bid to help our members avoid an incident. They can be national alerts or state-specific if connected to local legislation.
A wide range of guides and resources are also available to PDL members that have been developed to support pharmacists in their daily practice.
Pharmacists are at the forefront of patient care, ensuring the safe and effective use of medications. Despite pharmacists best efforts, incidents can result in complaints, even if there is minimal impact on the patient and immediate resolution has occurred. This
PDL Professional Officers occasionally receive incident reports and notifications relating to breaches or concerns regarding access to a patient’s My Health Record. Some of these cases require responses to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) and/or the Office of the
PDL Professional Officers continue to receive enquiries and incident reports that have contributing factors such as pressure, stress, workload or fatigue. PDL recognises the high demands placed on community and hospital pharmacists including interns, pharmacy owners and other staff members
Meridian Lawyers issue state and territory-specific guides It’s OK to say sorry. Pharmacists are human beings and fallible, so despite their best efforts, adverse events and mistakes can still occur. A key component of managing an incident is offering a
Pharmacists practising in Queensland are advised the UTIPP-Q pilot has finished and the Urinary Tract Infection Community Pharmacy Service is now allowed under the Pharmacists Extended Practice...
PDL continues to see notifications involving forged prescriptions and would like to remind pharmacists of the need to be vigilant when assessing the validity of prescriptions. Forgery red...
Pharmacists practising in Queensland are advised that after Friday, 9 September 2022, new pharmacists and pharmacies will no longer be accepted into the UTIPP-Q pilot. The following update from...
PDL has recently received several incident reports where the incorrect varicella vaccine has been prescribed and/or supplied. Prescribing software programs have variations on how the vaccines are...
It is no surprise that the top four drugs on our list are Schedule 8’s (S8s). Dispensing errors can happen with any drug but the top four are also prone to diversion, forgeries and theft. Another...
Schedule 8 medicines, in particular opioids, are often involved in notifications to PDL. An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report on opioid harm in Australia, published in 2018,...
Pharmaceutical Defence Limited (PDL) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the Elders past and present.