Telehealth clinics prescribing medicinal cannabis may soon be obligated to automatically upload prescription data to My Health Record, as the federal government considers reforms designed to strengthen patient safety and address concerns tied to online prescribing practices.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing opened a public consultation this month on proposed changes that would compel telehealth-only services to submit prescription and dispensing data to the federal electronic health record system.
All Schedule 4 to Schedule 8 medicines would fall under the proposed changes, and the consultation paper specifically points to medicinal cannabis as an illustration of the safety concerns that arise from fragmented prescribing arrangements.
The department described online prescribing services as now an “established and increasingly visible component of healthcare in Australia”, while cautioning that gaps in patient histories can pose risks when individuals are treated by more than one provider.
The paper cited data showing the number of people accessing medicinal cannabis grew from roughly 18,000 in 2019 to more than one million by January 2024, with monthly prescription volumes exceeding 80,000 by mid-2024.
“Much of this prescribing occurs through telehealth and/or dedicated online cannabis clinics, separate from a person’s usual healthcare provider, and frequently designed to provide these prescriptions directly to consumers,” the paper stated.
When medicinal cannabis use is not visible to a patient’s other treating clinicians, the department said there is a risk of harmful interactions with sedating drugs including benzodiazepines, opioids, antipsychotics, or certain antidepressants.
“This example highlights the importance of comprehensive, shared medicines information to support safer prescribing across care settings,” the paper added.
Submissions to the consultation close on July 7, with the government aiming to finalise the reforms before the end of the year.
