News
Warning over PBS nicotine patch availability
Six organisations, including the RACGP, have written to Minister Butler about a ‘major threat to public health’.
There are concerns that nicotine patches will be removed from the PBS on 1 April 2024.
The RACGP has asked Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler to step in to prevent the possible removal of nicotine patches from the PBS.
A letter co-signed by RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins outlines concerns about ‘a serious and pressing risk to progress in tobacco control in Australia’.
Other co-signatories include leaders from the Lung Foundation, Asthma Australia, Cancer Council Australia, Cancer Council Victoria and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
‘Without your urgent intervention, the availability of Nicotine Replacement Therapy [NRT] on the PBS is likely to be seriously compromised,’ they wrote.
The letter highlights the removal of nicotine gums and lozenges from the PBS earlier this year, with concerns that nicotine patches will also be removed due to a 26% statutory price reduction scheduled for 1 April next year.
They have asked Minister Butler to exercise his discretion for a price reduction exemption, noting that smoking remains Australia’s leading cause of premature death and disability.
‘Appropriately, the Australian Government has set ambitious tobacco control targets,’ the healthcare leaders wrote.
‘Achieving these targets depends critically on the ongoing availability of effective, affordable and accessible tobacco smoking cessation medications.
‘The nascent delisting of NRT from the PBS is contradictory to Australian Government strategy to reduce smoking rates.’
They describe NRT as a mainstay of smoking cessation in Australia, calling it ‘critically important’ to maintain availability to reduced price NRT for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples under the Closing the Gap scheme.
‘The loss of PBS-listed NRT is a major threat to public health, as well as planned reforms to tobacco control legislation, the National Tobacco Strategy and the Lung Cancer Screening Program,’ they wrote.
‘All of these depend on the availability of smoking cessation via approved medications.
‘It will also play into the hands of those seeking more widespread consumer availability of e-cigarettes, since current plans assume the availability of approved medications.’
The authors also say the removal of NRT would disproportionately impact pregnant patients, for whom other pharmacotherapies are not recommended.
According to the letter, more than 200,000 NRT prescriptions were issued in 2019–20.
Log in below to join the conversation.
nicotine replacement therapy PBS smoking cessation
newsGP weekly poll
Which RACGP request would you most like the Government to fund in the upcoming Federal Budget?