CHO Approvals

If you are a prescriber, you can view all of your controlled medicine approvals, read related correspondence, and click through to the related patient profile.

View your CHO approvals

  1. From the navigation menu, select Approvals.

  2. (If required) Filter by Date Range.

  3. By default, CHO Approval Search displays all of the approvals where you are the primary prescriber (My Approvals). The most recently updated approvals are at the top of the list.

    If you want to see all approvals that you have access to, change the Group By selection to My Practice Approvals.

  4. (If required) Apply additional filters to each column header or click a column header to sort.

    Approvals with Approval status of:

    • Pending have not yet been submitted to the regulator.

    • Pending - application submitted have been submitted to the regulator.

  5. Click to open an existing Approval. Depending on the approval status, you will see one or more buttons at the bottom of the page which you can click to:
    • Submit
    • Revoke
    • Cancel
    • Reapply
  6. To apply for a new CHO Approval, select Apply for CHO Approval. See Apply for a new CHO approval for more information.

Apply for a new CHO approval

  1. From Approvals, select Apply for CHO Approval, and select the relevant approval group:

    • Opioids - Acute or Chronic Pain

    • Opioids - Treatment of active malignancy or life limiting illness

    • Opioids - Other indication

    • Opioid Maintenance Treatment

    • Benzodiazepine

    • Psychostimulant - ADHD

    • Psychostimulant - Binge Eating Disorder

    • Psychostimulant - Narcolepsy

    • Psychostimulant - Other indication

    • Medicinal Cannabis

    • Other controlled medicines

    A blank Approval form displays with the selected approval group in the header.

    Approval Group was developed to make Category or approval by medicine selection easier for prescribers. Most approval groups will provide a description of the indication for which the application is for.

    The table below shows the Category Approval type(s) selections available within each Approval group.

    Approval Group Category Approval within Approval Group
    Opioids - Acute or Chronic Pain Category 1
    Opioids - Treatment of active malignancy or life limiting illness Category 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D
    Opioids - Other indications No category approval
    Opioid Maintenance Treatment Category 3A, 3B
    Benzodiazepine Category 4A, 4B
    Psychostimulant – ADHD Category 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D
    Psychostimulant – Binge Eating Disorder Category 5E, 5F
    Psychostimulant – Narcolepsy Category 5G, 5H
    Psychostimulant – Other indication No category approval
    Other controlled medicines No category approval
    Medicinal Cannabis No category approval
  2. At any time you can select:

    • Save Changes—for example, if you want to finish entering information and submit the approval application later.

      Your request is saved with Status set to Pending and displays on the CHO Approval Search grid. You can search for this approval and submit it at a later date.

      The following message displays:

    • Cancel Changes—for example, if you have not yet submitted your application and you do not want to proceed with the request.

  3. When you are ready to submit the application, make sure all the required inputs have been filled with valid data and then click Submit.

    • If all the required inputs have valid data, the following message displays:

      Your request displays on the CHO Approval Search page with its Status set to Pending - application submitted.

      Once a new application for an approval has been submitted, the prescriber can cancel the submitted version before it is actioned by a regulator (see Cancel an approval below).

    • If some of the required inputs are missing or have invalid data, the following message displays:

      You will also see a message similar to the one below:

      See Mandatory fields for CHO approvals for more details.

Reapply for a CHO approval

  1. From CHO Approval Search, search for the relevant approval, with Status set to Approved or Approved with amendments/conditions.

  2. Click the Reapply button at the bottom of the screen.

    A new application is created containing details from the existing application:

    • Patient

    • Prescriber—You will be added as the prescriber even if the prescriber on the existing application was someone else.

    • Drug dependency status

    • Clinic

    • Clinical diagnosis

    • Specify clinical diagnosis details

    • Medicines, dose, category

  3. Make the relevant changes to the Start date, Duration, Duration type or End date.

  4. Review the information in the request, updating as needed, then Submit.

    Canberra Script creates a new version of the approval with the Status of Pending - Application Submitted.

Submit requested information

  1. From CHO Approval Search, search for the relevant approval, with Status set to Waiting for additional information or Waiting for specialist support.

  2. Open this approval.

    All enabled fields can be edited, as required.

  3. In Correspondence, upload additional documents, if required.

    There may also be correspondence here from ACT Health outlining the additional information that is required.

  4. Submit the edited approval.

    If all required inputs are present and valid, Canberra Script creates a new version of the approval with the status of Pending - information submitted.

Cancel an approval application

Practitioners can submit a cancellation when approvals are no longer required. For example, when the Status is Pending, Pending - application submitted, Waiting for additional information, Waiting for specialist support, In progress or Pending - information submitted.

To cancel an approval application:

  1. Open the approval and at the bottom of the screen, click the Cancel button.

  2. (Mandatory) In the Confirm popup select the relevant Action reasons checkbox(es) and then click Confirm.

    The following confirmation displays:

The approval displays in CHO Approval Search with the Status set to Cancelled.

Approvals that have been Expired, Revoked or Refused can still be accessed by practitioners from CHO Approval Search

Revoke an approved application

Practitioners can revoke an approval when the relevant circumstances change.

In order to revoke an approval, the Status needs to be Approved, Approved with amendments/conditions or Referred to MAC - interim approval.

  1. Open the approval and at the bottom of the screen click Revoke.

  2. (Mandatory) In the Confirm popup, select the relevant Action reasons checkbox(es) and then click Confirm.

    The following confirmation displays:

The approval displays in CHO Approval Search with the Status set to Revoked.

Mandatory fields for CHO approvals

CHO approvals must contain certain mandatory fields (required inputs) before they can be submitted. If you do not provide the required inputs before submitting, then a message will display at the top, letting you know what is missing. See examples of messages below:

You need to enter the following required inputs before you can successfully submit the CHO approval.

  • Patient - You need to specify a patient and also select Yes or No for the Drug dependent field.

  • Prescriber - You need to select a prescriber clinic. If multiple prescriber clinics are selected, you need to nominate one as a Primary prescriber clinic.

  • Medicine/Category - You need to specify a medicine or category (if any). If you select a medicine, you need to enter a Maximum dose.

    You must set the Drug dependence status of the patient in order to be able to access the Medicine/Category section.

  • Clinical diagnosis - if you select Other (please specify), you need to enter text in the Specify clinical diagnosis details textbox.