New South Wales Consolidated Acts

POISONS AND THERAPEUTIC GOODS ACT 1966 - SECT 17B

17B Authorisation of possession, use, prescription or supply by optometrists

(1) There is constituted by this section a committee to be called the Optometrists Drug Authority Committee. Schedule 2A has effect with respect to the Committee.

(2) The Committee may from time to time approve of the use in the practice of optometry of specified poisons and restricted substances, and for that purpose the Committee may also approve of the following:

(a) different classes of optometrists drug authority for issue under section 21 of the Optometrists Act 2002 ,

(b) the poisons and restricted substances that are to be covered by the different classes of optometrists drug authority,

(c) the competency standards an optometrist must meet in order to be granted an optometrists drug authority of a particular class,

(d) the criteria to be used to ascertain whether an optometrist meets those competency standards (including criteria as to necessary education, training and experience),

(e) the maximum period for which an optometrists drug authority may be granted,

(f) the ocular conditions that an optometrist who holds a particular class of optometrists drug authority is authorised to treat.

(3) An optometrist who holds an optometrists drug authority under section 21 of the Optometrists Act 2002 is authorised to possess, use, supply or prescribe, in the practice of optometry, such poisons and restricted substances as may be approved for the time being under this section in respect of the class of authority concerned.

(4) Subsection (3) does not authorise an optometrist to use, supply or prescribe a poison or restricted substance to treat an ocular condition unless the ocular condition is one that an approval under this section authorises the holder of the relevant optometrists drug authority to treat.

(5) The Committee is to consult with the Optometrists Registration Board on the use of poisons and restricted substances in the practice of optometry, including consultation on the provisions of a code of professional conduct concerning their use.

(6) The Committee may obtain such advice and assistance in connection with the exercise of its functions as it considers appropriate.

(7) An approval under this section is to be by order published in the Gazette.