Australian and other resources for palliative care prescribing

• Therapeutic Guidelines – Palliative Care This is an authoritative handbook for prescribing palliative medications, and is available online in many organisations or can be purchased. Go to this resource for detailed advice on managing symptoms in palliative care patients (version 3, 2010 now available)
• The eviQ opioid  calculator provides clinicians with an online tool to allow accurate conversion of one opioid regimen to an approximately equianalgesic dose of another.
• Australian Medicines Handbook Provides general prescribing information. Also widely available online in some hospitals and in medical libraries.
• Cancer Pain Release Cancer Pain Release is the publication of the World Health Organization global communications program to improve cancer pain control and palliative and supportive care. Each edition discusses approaches to using various analgesics, and to prescribing for particular groups, for instance children and the elderly.
• Palliativedrugs.com British site which gives online access, on registering, to the Palliative Care Formulary. Also contains articles discussing aspects of management, a compendium of protocols, audit tools and other research tools, and a bulletin board for palliative care practitioners. The bulletin board is un-moderated, and the comments on the board vary from identifying high quality data that is published in the peer reviewed literature to unsubstantiated anecdote. Visitors need to exercise their critical appraisal skills and clinical judgement in accessing the bulletin board.
• The National Prescribing Service This site provides information relating to new medications, to critical evaluation of prescribing practices, and to the quality use of medications, including: 
  • Drugs used in palliative care
  • Articles on palliative care drugs from NPS RADAR
• Therapeutic Goods Administration Search the A to Z listing for information about the regulation of specific drugs and classes of drugs; includes information about complementary and alternative therapies and how they are regulated. There is also a section dealing with Palliative Care Benefits - Therapeutic Index.
• Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits (PBS) website has the following:
  • Palliative care and the PBS /consumer
  • Prescribing medicines information for PBS prescribers
  • PBS safety net scheme
• Pain in Residential Aged Care Facilities: Management Strategies (Australian Pain Society, August 2006) provides detailed, evidence based advice on pain management
• Centrelink has information on the Pharmaceutical allowance
• The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has produced Improving medication management of palliative care patients: enhancing the role of community pharmacists
• The ANZ College of Anaesthetists has a document: Use of “Off Label” or Drugs beyond Licence in Pain Medicine

Phone Numbers

These phone numbers are contactable 24 hours a day for authority prescribing.

• PBS Authority prescriptions: Freecall 1800 888 333
• RPBS (DVA) Authority prescriptions: Freecall 1800 55 2580.

TAIS Freecall: 1300 138 677 (local call charge)

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This page was created on 27 August 2010
Last updated 17 January 2011*