Requirements of DTCs from NSW Health PD2016_033: Approval Process of Medicines for Use in NSW Public Hospitals
This Policy Document establishes a standard process for the approval of medicines and their use for listing on hospital formularies, or for individual patient use. It references the use of NSW TAG documents and tools to assist the work of DTCs in medicines approval. These are provided on the DTC Resources Evaluating new drugs webpage.
It also refers to a number of CATAG Guiding Principles (roles and responsibilities of DTCs, quality use of off-label medicine and biosimilar use), the links to which may also be found on the DTC Resources – Evaluating new drugs webpage.
In order to facilitate communication of DTC decisions to the DTCs of other hospitals, Local Health Districts and Speciality Health Networks, the NSW TAG maintains a register of DTC decisions for NSW public hospitals. The DTCs of the following hospitals (or LHDs that include the following hospitals), should inform NSW TAG of all hospital formulary and IPU decisions, and other DTC decisions as per the template provided to hospitals by NSW TAG:
- Principle referral hospitals (A1)
- Paediatric specialist hospitals (A2)
- Ungrouped acute – tertiary referral hospitals.
The Register of DTC Decisions to date can be found here.
Requirements of DTCs from NSW Health PD2013_043: Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities
This document aims to assist Drug and Therapeutics Committees to understand their responsibilities as set out by NSW Health Policy Directive PD2013_043: Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities.
NSW TAG contributed to an extensive review and update of the NSW Health Policy Directive for Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities. The updated Directive, published in December 2013, specifies a number of requirements of DTCs, mostly relating to the need for a local protocol, procedure or guideline. The Directive provides an overarching framework for governance of medication handling across NSW, but requires DTCs to be responsible for local operationalisation of many aspects within their facilities. A single actionable list compiling these requirements has been developed for DTC use.
Summary of the requirements as outlined in PD2013_043: Medication Handling in NSW Public Health Facilities [PDF]
