Medicinal Cannabis

The South Australian Controlled Substances Act 1984 regulates the prescribing and supply of medicines in South Australia and applies to medicinal cannabis products.

A section 18A authority to prescribe a medicinal cannabis product that is a Schedule 8 controlled drug (drug of dependence) is required:

• after 2 months of treatment or before commencing treatment where the person has already been prescribed a Schedule 8 drug for a period exceeding 2 months

• before commencing treatment for any person the medical practitioner reasonably believes to be dependent on drugs.

A section 18A authority is not required for patients aged 70 years or older or Notified Palliative Care Patients (notification must be made to the DDU).

Medicinal Cannabis

Medicinal Cannabis Authorities workflows are commonly initiated from the Practitioner's record. Refer to Practitioners.

Patient Class authorities are first created as pending requests, until a user with the relevant permission level takes action to approve or reject the request.

1. From Authorities, select Create Authority > Medicinal Cannabis.
   Medicinal Cannabis Authority

   Authority status

   The authority status is set to Pending (by default).

   The authority status is updated when an Action is taken on the authority.

   If your user role allows it, you can grant or refuse an authority while creating it.

   When the authority is Approved and Saved, the Authority Number is displayed (top right). A version number [N] is added each time an amendment to the authority is approved.

   

   Select a Status from the list:

   • Approved - A letter is generated (See Correspondence)
   • Waiting for additional information
   • In progress
   • Submitted
   • Pending
   • Cancelled - A letter is generated (See Correspondence)
   • Refused

   Start/End Date/Number of Months

   Enter a start and end date for the authority.

   Start date is mandatory. End date is optional.

   An authority cannot be approved if its end date is set in the past. An error message is displayed:

   End date cannot be earlier than today.

   When the end date is reached, any Approved authority is automatically set to Expired.

   Action

   By default, authority requests are created with their Status set to Pending.

   Users with the relevant permission level can take the following Action on an authority request:

   Action

   When an Authority is created, Submit is the only Action available for selection.

   Users with the relevant permission level can take the following Action on a Submitted Authority.

   • Create
   • Amend
   • Renew
   • Submit
   • Cancel
   • Approve
   • Commence Review
   • Refuse
   • Request additional information

   Action Reason

   Once an Action is selected, you must also select an Action Reason.

   Action reasons are grouped by sub-types depending on the selected Action (Grant or Reject).

   • If you change the Action value, the selected Action Reason is cleared and you must select another one.

   • If Other is selected, a field Enter other reason is displayed. This field accepts 1000 characters max.

   Authority subtype

   Mandatory

   Select one from the list.

   Application Source

   Read-only

   • MP - if the authority was created from the management portal.

   • HP - if the authority was created from the health practitioner portal.

   Application Purpose

   Read-only

   Provides further context on the authority’s status and is populated based on the last action.

Patient

When an authority is started from the patient profile, patient details are pre-populated.

The patient details displayed in Patient Search Results are sourced from the patient profile.

Search Patient

If you are creating a new authority search for a patient to link it to this authority .

1. Expand the Patients section.
2. Enter at least one character in First Name or Surname. Optionally, enter one or more character in Date of Birth, or the patient's IHI Number, then select Search.

   A list of matching patients displays in Patient Search Results.

3. From Patient Search Results, select the relevant entry.
4. Click through to view more patient details and make any required changes. 
5. Select the relevant entry and add it to the Patient section. 

   Select is disabled if the patient only has a medication history.

   If the patient you want to link to only has a medication history, you must first create a patient profile for this patient.

   See Patient Profile

6. Once the selected patient has been added, do one of the following (if required):
   • View patient - Open the profile to view the full patient details and make any required changes.
   • Remove patient - If your patient selection is incorrect.

     

View Patient

Open the patient profile to view in full or to edit it.

Refer to Patient Profile > Create a Regulatory profile from a Transactional profile

Prescriber

The prescriber to whom authority is granted.

Add prescriber

Search for the prescriber, then link to this regulatory event.

Search

1. Search by Name, Surname, or Unique ID.

   You must enter at least one character in either the First name or Surname fields or a valid ID number.

   A list of matching practitioners displays in Practitioners Search Results.

2. In Practitioners Search Results, use the column headers to sort or filter the results.

3. Select the relevant entry.

4. Click through to view the full practitioners details and make the required changes.

5. Select the practitioner to add it to the grid.

6. (If required) In the grid, select delete to remove a line entry. For example, if your profile selection is incorrect.

   

7. Once the selected entry has been added to the grid, do one of the following (if required):

   • View practitioners - Open the profile to view in Practitioners Details and make any required changes.

   • Remove practitioners - If your prescriber selection is incorrect.

8. Save your changes to return to the Authority.

Prescriber address

(If required) Use Prescriber Address to changes the address details of the selected prescriber.

These changes apply to this authority only.

Medicines

Add Medicine

Select medicines from the Medicine Group

1. From Medicine Group, select the medicine group that is relevant to the Authority.

   To refine the list, do one of the following:

   • Enter a medicine name (generic or brand), then Search .

     — or —

     Apply additional filters to each column header.

   For each line item, the Monitored Medicine List displays the Generic name, Brand name, Strength, Formulation, MPUU, TPUU, PBS code (when applicable), and the Unit of Measure (UoM).

2. Select the line entries that are relevant to the authority.
3. Select Add to Authority to add your selection .

   Ensure you have selected all the required lines.

   You have not selected all items, Please select any unselected medicines that are required (use the page controls if necessary).

   You are returned to your authority page where your selection displays in the Medicines grid.

4. In the Medicines grid, complete the required information (Dose, UoM, Formulation and Frequency) that is specific to the authority.

If you change the approval subtype before saving, your unsaved medicine selection is cleared.

Select Add to Authority again to make a new drug selection to match the new approval sub-type.

Treatment Details

Selected Treatment - Select all the treatment details relevant to this authority.

Medical status/Diagnosis details - Enter as required.

Conditions

Select all relevant conditions under which this authority is requested.

Multiple selections are allowed.

The conditions selected are included in the letters generated for this authority.

Collection Frequency

Multiple selections are allowed.



The Collection Frequency selected are included in the letters generated for this authority.

If no collection frequency condition was selected, the mention Nil collection frequency conditions is inserted in the letter.

Correspondence

Send a letter to the prescriber

Depending on the status of the authority, you can send the following letters:

• General Correspondence

• Non-Compliance Letter



To generate a letter, the practitioner’s profile must have an organisation flagged as their postal address. See Practitioner Profile and Organisations

Create letter > General correspondence

This letter type has no default content and can be used for a range of purposes.



1. Select Create Letter, then click General Correspondence.

2. On the Create Letter screen, enter all of the required details:

   • Subject - include the patient's details (i.e., name) here.

   • Signatory title

   • Letter text

3. Select Generate.

The letter is generated and is shown in the Correspondence grid.

Create letter > Non-compliance

This letter type is used to notify the prescriber that they have failed to comply with one or more conditions of the authority.

1. Select Create Letter, then select Non-Compliance Letter.

   

2. On the Create Letter screen, enter all of the required details:

   

   • Select one or more Reasons.

   • If relevant, enter Conditions.

3. Select Generate.

   The letter is generated and is shown in the Correspondence grid.

   You letter has been generated successfully.

   

Attach any digital copy of letters associated with this patient.

• Date of document - Date the document was created or obtained by the user.

• Document type - Select from the list.

• Source

  • Inbound - Received by DDU (Default).

  • Outbound - Initiated by DDU.

• Sender/Recipient - Either the person or organisation who provided the document, or for whose benefit the document was uploaded.

• Sensitive - By default, all uploaded documents are flagged as Sensitive. Practitioners cannot view this document in the Practitioner portal, unless the flag is removed.

  Correspondence attached to an organisation cannot be viewed or accessed by practitioners.

• Choose file - Select a single file to be uploaded. Max size is 4 MB.

• Drop file here - Drag-and-drop a file to be uploaded.

• Upload - The document is uploaded to ScriptCheckSA.

  Your document has been successfully uploaded.

  If the document's file type is not allowed, or if malware is detected, the upload is not permitted.

  The document selected is not a permitted file type.

  The document selected did not pass the malware scan and has been rejected.

• Cancel - The document is not uploaded.

Edit document details

Select Edit to modify the document details displayed in the grid.

If the document was uploaded, all Document Details can be edited.

If the document was generated by ScriptCheckSA, you can only modify two entries.

• Document status: To be reviewed, In review, Review completed

• Sensitive: Remove this flag if you want the document to be displayed in the Practitioner portal.



Notes

Optional

Notes are visible to other regulators.

1. Enter your note (up to 1000 characters), then Save.

   The Notes section displays 20 of the most recently added notes, sorted in reverse chronological order.

   Each note displays with a Date/Time stamp and the name of the user who created it.

2. Select Show more to display all notes.

Related versions

 

2. Select Save to create the Approval, then OK in the Confirm prompt.

   Your approval has been created (updated) successfully.

   All authorities display in Authority Search with their current Status. Status is updated when the Action field is updated.