Health practitioners, and licence and Permit holders are encouraged to report other irregularities or concerns with medicines and poisons to the Department of Health. The Department will also accept similar information provided by the public.
Where the matters relate to advertising, storage, transport, reporting, record keeping, supply, or disposal (including dumping, illegal sales, illicit supply or any other matter of concern), the Department has authority to investigate these matters. Misconduct or mismanagement that is a threat to public health is taken very seriously and will be investigated.
Under the Medicines and Poisons Act 2014, Officers of the Department may be authorised as investigators, and have powers to retrieve records, inspect premises and take evidence for any court matters.
Health practitioners, and licence and Permit holders must cooperate with investigators and provide all reasonable assistance as instructed. Any records that are requested must be provided in full, in the format required, and within a reasonable time frame. Failure to produce records may be an offence.
The Department cannot directly investigate matters of commercial practice, health practitioner standards or the standard of premises that involve medicines and poisons. The Department is not able to resolve individual disputes with patients (such as relating to fees and charges for medicines). When reported, these issues will be referred to the most relevant regulatory agency.