Preparing the workforce for the reintroduction of pseudoephedrine

Work is well underway to see what education services can be offered to support pharmacy teams when pseudoephedrine is again made available through New Zealand pharmacies.

The Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Act 2024 became law on 11 April 2024.

The legislation reclassified pseudoephedrine from a Class B2 controlled drug to Class C3 with no requirement for controlled drug safe storage (Section 28(4)(e) Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1977).

On 12 April, the Minister of Health provisionally consented 11 products containing pseudoephedrine. These products may be available in New Zealand in time for winter.

The Society’s Chief Executive Helen Morgan-Banda has asked the organisation’s education team to consider what support can be developed and delivered to assist pharmacy teams to be ready for this change.

“We recognise that while pseudoephedrine is a very useful therapeutic agent its reintroduction will potentially raise concerns about the safety of pharmacy teams.

“PSNZ did call for a real-time monitoring system so that when pharmacists supplied a drug like pseudoephedrine, they could log into a system that would show them if the person had already been supplied with it.

“That hasn’t happened so our focus now is on looking at how we can offer education resources that aid pharmacists to be able to have appropriate conversations with patients about the right medicine for their presenting condition.

“In particular, our educators have been tasked with focusing on building or adapting courses that can support pharmacists to have positive patient relationships and confidently handle challenging interactions.

“We want to make sure we have our workforce prepared.”