As the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) moves to limit access to another form of pain relief, with the encouragement of taxpayer-funded public health lobbyists and their media supporters, yet again the views of millions of pain sufferers are being ignored by health bureaucrats.
As with the successful effort by the public health lobby to ban over-the-counter codeine in 2016, rare cases of self-harm — in this case, paracetamol overdoses by teenagers — are being used to prevent Australians from managing their own pain, condemning chronic pain sufferers, women with severe menstrual pain and arthritis sufferers to ever greater difficulties in managing their pain.
In a demonstration of exactly how this is part of a longer-term, creeping attempt by bureaucrats and the public health lobby to take away Australians’ ability to manage their own pain, the justification for banning over-the-counter codeine in 2016 was that paracetamol was just as good as codeine and was widely available.
In fact, the “independent modelling” used to justify banning codeine specifically assumed “the substitution of low dose codeine medicines to cheaper supermarket products such as paracetamol and/or ibuprofen”. In fact, it had to, because otherwise the modelling would have shown a massive impact on demand for GPs as pain sufferers were forced to attend their GPs to receive prescriptions for low-dose codeine.
Now the very justification for the codeine ban is being removed with strict limits on supermarket purchases of paracetamol and ibuprofen — and a complete ban on the over-the-counter sale of modified-release paracetamol. The next step, inevitably, will be the complete prohibition of over-the-counter pain relief.
It is typical of this public health regulatory process that pain sufferers are ignored and their needs and agency diminished. The fact that women suffer from chronic pain significantly more than men according to both international and Australian studies suggests an element of perhaps unconscious misogyny in the willingness of public health advocates to dismiss the concerns of chronic pain sufferers.
But as lobby group Pain Australia pointed out in its submission to the TGA, the proposed restrictions will disproportionately punish pain sufferers in regional areas, where there are far fewer options not merely for access to GPs and chemists but to supermarkets as well.
The specific intent of the restrictions is to prevent “stockpiling” of paracetamol, yet stockpiling is exactly what pain sufferers without easy access to either pharmacies or supermarkets need to do to be able to effectively manage pain — and if you rely on modified-release paracetamol and you live in a regional community, you’ll be on your own. You’ll be forced to make an appointment with a hard-pressed local GP, perhaps days or weeks in the future, in order to obtain some basic relief. Good luck.
The obliviousness of the public health lobby to the realities of life for pain sufferers seems to be an abiding theme of their push to control Australians’ lives.
While minimising self-harm is the professed goal of the restrictions, they represent the ongoing medicalisation of the basics of life by the public health lobby. In the eyes of public health advocates, literally no decision you ever make cannot be turned into a medical issue that must be removed from your control and handed to a medical bureaucrat who is supposed to be better at making decisions for you than you yourself.
Pain relief, drug consumption, food, lifestyle choices: all must be vetted to ensure they maximise health and productivity for the community — even if not for you.
Do you feel big health is limiting your choices? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
One of the other ridiculous restrictions is limiting naprogesic, an NSAID routinely used for period pain, to pharmacies. You cannot buy it in a supermarket but you can walk straight into a pharmacy and take it off the shelf without ever speaking to a pharmacist. This is a drug many women use on a monthly basis
In QLD they still keep these Meds behind the counter.
As a frequent user of paracetamol, I am appalled by this. I’m not sure, however, that it’s “bureaucrats and the public health lobby” who are behind these moves. My question would be “Cui bono?” and possible answers are pharmacists, and possibly GPs. Over-stretched as the latter are, writing a repeat prescription must be pretty easy money.
Currently I have to see my GP every fortnight to get a repeat prescription modified release painkillers, yet other ones I get a six repeats prescription. Usually I’m in and out of the room in five minutes, although I may have had to sit waiting my turn for up to an hour after my appointment time.
I am 75 years old and have osteoarthritis. I have successfully managed my own medication for the past 60 years.
I find this push by some “do-gooders” to limit my access to paracetamol insulting and disrespectful.
According to a report in the ABC TV news to-day the overdose problem is concentrated in teenage and younger females. They are not bulk buying the paracetamol they use but taking it opportunistically from home supplies.
It would seem probable that the problem is a mental health issue which the banning is not going to address.
This problem needs to be addressed properly not by banning and the push by these “do-gooders” denied and recognised as an unrealistic, simplistic solution.
Bob Harvey
14/11/2022
It was the panadol that was in with the codeine that was the culprit in the first place. Another stupid public health campaign by people who don’t seem to understand what pain is and how different painkillers actually work. I was extremely fortunate that the monthly migraine period of my life had come to an end by 2016.
It also discriminates. Against older people, a high proportion of whom experience varying levels and frequency of arthritic joint pain. And Panadol Osteo, modified release paracetamol, is a godsend as it provides overnight relief from joint etc pain after energetic exercise.
Yep I am not old, but I have multiple chronic inflammatory conditions that mean I need to use panadol osteo at night in particular, to be able to get a few hours of decent sleep. Juggling a bunch of chronic conditions and all the appointments, costs and life limitations that go with them is difficult enough without more obstacles being added.
Agree