The NPS and its TAIS initiative build on the foundation of work already conducted over the past decade to promote the quality use of medicines in Australia. The TAIS telephone service is another tool that doctors, pharmacists and other health professionals can use to help them navigate the enormous volume of information available about medicines, including complementary healthcare products, and it will enable them to provide their patients with the best and most cost-effective treatment. Increasingly, and unsurprisingly, quality use of medicines projects are focusing on prevention more emphasis is being given to the cause of adverse reactions before they occur. The TAIS will give doctors, pharmacists and other health professionals the type of peace of mind information they need about prescription medicines to assist them to prescribe wisely. Let me now give you some idea of how the TAIS works.
Health professionals are able to forward their queries by phone, fax, email or snail mail.
And in bringing this important quality prescribing service to fruition, I would like to congratulate the National Prescribing Service Chairman, Dr Stephen Phillips, his staff, and everyone else involved. It is a tremendous collaborative effort. I am aware that an enormous amount of hard work has gone into coordinating the six independent drug information services into a single national service and in gaining the consortium s agreement to do so. That effort is truly appreciated by the Federal Government, the Australian healthcare community and the general public. This is indeed a very positive and strong endorsement from Australia s peak health and medical organisations, who have obviously recognised the enormous value of this service.