Adverse Medicines Events consumer telephone hotline funded

The Australian Government will provide funding to enable the services provided through the Adverse Medicines Events (AME) telephone hotline to continue for a further 12 months.

The AME line has provided the opportunity for consumers to speak to a pharmacist about medicine safety or report adverse experiences with medicines. The service played a major role this year in highlighting adverse reactions associated with zolpidem.

There had been the possibility of the line being shut down after interim funding from The Pharmacy Guild of Australia ran out in July 2007. Several stakeholders including PSA (http://www.psa.org.au/) and the Guild (http://www.guild.org.au/) called for the Australian Government to fund the hotline.

The Australian Government announced it would fund the service for 12 months beginning on 1 August, 2007, to ensure that consumers were provided with a way to seek help with or report adverse reactions to medicines. During this time the service would be reviewed and options for future funding developed.

The Department of Health’s media release on the funding is available here: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr07-ta-abb086.htm