The federal Minister for Health will introduce new restrictions on the prescription of fentanyl patches for patients outside of palliative or cancer care.

Greg Hunt made a pledge to change the TGA indications for the drug at a meeting of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia this week, along with a promise to mandate smaller pack sizes for opioid tablets.

The society had been lobbying the minister to restrict the use of fentanyl to palliative care and cancer care unless “exceptional circumstances” applied.

The move would be in line with the RACGP’s opioid guidelines introduced in 2017 which suggested GPs should not prescribe fentanyl patches for non-cancer pain because of concerns patients underestimated their potency or deliberately diverted it as a heroin substitute.