Pharmaceutical Services of the NSW Ministry of Health must be immediately notified without delay when the loss or theft of a Schedule 8 (S8) or Schedule 4 Appendix D (S4D) medicine has occurred. Any loss must be notified, regardless of the amount.
The NSW Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Regulation 2008 requires people authorised to be in possession of a drug of addiction (Schedule 8 medicine) or a prescribed restricted substance (Schedule 4 Appendix D medicine), to immediately notify the Secretary of Health of any loss or theft of these medicines.
People authorised to possess these medicines include medical practitioners, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, ambulance officers, veterinary practitioners, pharmaceutical wholesalers and pharmaceutical manufacturing licence holders, and people in charge of a laboratory used for analysis or research.
If you are a patient or consumer and your medicine or prescription is suspected to be stolen, speak to your doctor for advice. Do not notify Pharmaceutical Services. For more information see Lost, stolen and returns of medicines.
Notification to Pharmaceutical Services of any loss or theft of an accountable medicine such as a drug of addiction (Schedule 8 medicine) or a prescribed restricted substance (Schedule 4 Appendix D medicine), including any follow-up notification, must be made by submitting the following notification form: Online notification of lost or stolen S8 and/or S4D medicines
A copy of the submitted form should be kept for your records.
Following the submission of an initial notification to Pharmaceutical Services, if further details about the incident become available, a notification form should be re-submitted to include this additional information.
Each incident of the loss or theft of accountable medicines (S8, S4D, or other medicines) from the NSW public health system must be notified by the Director of Pharmacy, or the Director of Nursing where no pharmacist is employed.
Information on additional reporting requirements for the loss or theft of S8 and S4D medicines from NSW public health facilities can be found in the policy directive PD2022_032 Medication Handling.
For further assistance or advice, please submit an online enquiry.