Concern over paracetamol access for Australians in pain

Painaustralia, the national pain advocacy body, has expressed disappointment at the TGA’s interim decision to reduce the available pack sizes of paracetamol in Australia.

The decision followed an independent expert report commissioned by the TGA which examined intentional paracetamol overdose and found that 225 people are hospitalised and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose each year; intentional overdose is most prevalent among adolescents and young adults.

The interim decision proposes to amend the Poisons Standard to:

• reduce the maximum size of packs available for general sale (eg, supermarkets and convenience stores) from 20 to 16 tablets or capsules;
• reduce the maximum size of packs available in pharmacies without supervision of a pharmacist from 100 to 32 tablets or capsules;
• make other pack sizes of up to 100 tablets or capsules only available under the supervision of a pharmacist (‘Pharmacist Only’ medicines).
   

“Painaustralia is very concerned that this pack size reduction will lead to an increase in the per-tablet cost, hitting the lowest-income and most rural people in pain the hardest,” said Guilia Jones, Painaustralia CEO.

“For the 3.4 million people in Australia living with chronic pain, day in and day out, paracetamol can be a recommended management option which is affordable and accessible, while other treatments are out of reach for so many. Moving to allow packs of only 16, which is the TGA recommendation, will last only for two days for most consumers in this situation.”

Painaustralia has made a submission to the TGA’s renewed round of consultation on the interim decision, making this point very clear.

The submission states:

“While Painaustralia supports the sensible recommendation to not upschedule paracetamol, place age restrictions to purchase or to limit the number of packets that can be bought at a supermarket or pharmacy, we are disappointed by the decision to reduce the available pack sizes of paracetamol available to Australians living with pain.”

Jones said the interim decision recommending not to upschedule modified-release paracetamol is particularly sensible as the nation faces a GP access crisis, compounding the problems faced by people in pain.

“On every bus, in every office and across every suburb of Australia, pain does not discriminate. One in five Australians over 25 live with pain. These people already cannot afford other treatments and now the little that they do have to get relief could become harder to get,” she said.

According to Painaustralia, the decision to reduce pack sizes of paracetamol is “overwhelmingly not supported by consumers”. In their survey of 100 consumers who live with chronic pain, only 25% of respondents agreed with the proposal to reduce pack sizes.

Painaustralia said they would welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue further and stressed the importance of storing medications safely at home as one factor in keeping young people safe from overdose using paracetamol.

The TGA will make a final decision in April.

Image credit: iStock.com/Cristian Storto Fotografia