Key messages
- Registered residential aged care providers must follow storage and record-keeping requirements for all Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medication.
- The requirements apply where a resident has been supplied on prescription with a Schedule 4 or Schedule 8 medication.
- Aged care homes with a health services permit to hold imprest stock must follow regulations associated with imprest stock.
The Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2017 (the Regulations) specify storage and record keeping for registered residential aged care providers of aged care services for Schedule 4, Schedule 8 and Schedule 9 medications.
The Regulations apply to aged care services where a resident has been supplied with the medicine on a prescription or a chart instruction written on a hospital medication chart (Schedule 4 or Schedule 8 medication; discharge medication) or a chart instruction written on a residential medication chart (Schedule 4 poison).
Residential aged care services – scheduled medicine storage requirements
The Regulations specify that, registered aged care providers:
- must store Schedule 4 medication in a lockable storage facility
- must store dispensed Schedule 8 medication in a lockable room or a lockable storage facility that is firmly affixed to the floor or wall
- must ensure that any storage facility for a Schedule 4 or 8 medication is locked, except when it has to be opened to perform a specific action directly related to the medicine, such as to administer the medication or to do an inventory check
- may use a single storage system for dispensed Schedule 4 and dispensed Schedule 8 medication for all residents receiving that medicine.
The above requirements apply to Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medication that is supplied on a prescription or a chart instruction written on a hospital medication chart (for discharge medicine) or a chart instruction written on a residential medication chart for a specific resident (i.e. dispensed medicine).
If the aged care service maintains an imprest stock of medication (i.e. medication that is not dispensed) any Schedule 8 imprest stock must be stored in a drug cabinet that complies with the security criteria specified in the Regulations.
To maintain an imprest stock, the establishment must hold a health services permit issued by the Department of Health.
Residential aged care services – recording requirements for scheduled drugs
Registered residential aged care providers must maintain, and be able to retrieve, accurate and complete records of transactions (including administration) for Schedule 4 and 8 medication.
Registered residential aged care providers are not required to keep a drug register for Schedule 8 medication, that shows the balance of stock on hand, if the medicine is supplied on a prescription or chart instruction for a specific resident in tamper-evident dose-administration containers that are labelled with administration times (i.e dispensed Schedule 8 medication).
Registered residential aged care providers are required to keep a drug register for records of administration of Schedule 8 imprest stock.
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