Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations (Amendment) (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1950. No. 62.

 

REGULATIONS UNDER THE PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS ACT 1947-1949.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Act 1947-1949.

Dated this twenty-seventh day of September, 1950.

W. J. McKell

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

EARLE PAGE

Minister of State for Health.

 

Amendments of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations. 

Supply of benefits upon prescriptions.

1. Regulation 12 of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations is amended by inserting in sub-regulation (2.), after paragraph (d), the following paragraphs:—

“ (da) the prescription does not prescribe pharmaceutical benefits for more than one person ;

“ (db) the prescription does not prescribe the one pharmaceutical benefit twice ;”.

2. After-regulation 12 of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations the following regulations are inserted :—

Writing of prescriptions on one day.

“ 12a. A medical practitioner who writes on an authorized prescription form a prescription for the supply of a pharmaceutical benefit to a person shall not, on the same day, write on another authorized prescription form a prescription for the supply of the same pharmaceutical benefit to that person.

Prescriptions for dangerous drugs.

“ 12b.—(1.) Where a pharmaceutical benefit is of such a kind that, under the law of a State or Territory of the Commonwealth, a pharmaceutical chemist dispensing a prescription for that benefit (or the pharmaceutical chemist dispensing a prescription for that benefit on the last of the number of occasions of supply indicated in the prescription) is required to take possession of the prescription, a medical practitioner who, in that State or Territory, writes on an authorized prescription form a prescription for the supply of that pharmaceutical benefit shall not write on that form any other prescription.

“ (2.) A person shall not be entitled to receive a pharmaceutical benefit upon presentation of a prescription written in contravention of the last preceding sub-regulation.”.

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on 29th September, 1950.

  Statutory Rules 1950, No. 48, as amended by Statutory Rules 1950, Nos. 51 and 55.

5127.—Price 3d.

 

Prescribing of certain drugs restricted.

3. Regulation 14 of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations is amended by adding at the end of sub-regulation (3.) the words—

“ Streptomycin,

Dihydrostreptomycin.”.

Payments to approved hospital authorities.

4.—(1.) Regulation 31 of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations is amended by inserting after sub-regulation (4.) the following sub-regulation :—

“(4a.) Notwithstanding anything contained in the last preceding sub-regulation, a determination under this regulation may be expressed to be deemed to have come into force on a date earlier than the date of publication of the determination in the Gazette, and be applicable accordingly, where the determination does not thereby operate to reduce the payment to any approved hospital authority in respect of a period prior to that date of publication.”.

(2.) This regulation shall be deemed to have come into operation on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1950.

Third Schedule.

5.—(1.) The Third Schedule to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Regulations is amended—

(a) by inserting in sub-paragraph (1.) of paragraph 1, after the definition of “number”, the following definition :—

“ ‘ the basic amount ’, in relation to a pharmaceutical benefit supplied in any month, means the amount determined by the Director-General to have been, as at the first day of that month—

(a) in the case of a pharmaceutical benefit specified in any of items 58 to 61 (inclusive) in the Second Schedule—the prevailing retail price for the standard number of that pharmaceutical benefit in the form of unit, as specified in column 3 of Table A, in which it is supplied ; and

(b) in the case of any other pharmaceutical benefit—the prevailing wholesale price for the standard number of the pharmaceutical benefit in the form of unit, as specified in column 3 of Table A, in which it is supplied, plus one-third of that price ;”;

(b) by omitting from sub-paragraph (2.) of that paragraph the words “ columns 3, 4 and 5 ” and inserting in their stead the words “ columns 3 and 4 ”;

(c) by omitting from sub-paragraph (2.) of paragraph 3 the definition of the symbol “ a ” and inserting in its stead the following definition:—

“ ‘a ’ means the basic amount in relation to the pharmaceutical benefit ;”; and

(d) by omitting column 5 of Table A.

(2.) The amendments made by this regulation shall not apply in relation to payments in respect of the supply of pharmaceutical benefits supplied before the first day of October, 1950.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.