The medicines schedule created by the TGA is the principal mechanism to prevent mass harm to patients in Australia.

Yet with no outcry, no protest, no rage, maybe no awareness, the schedule and its inbuilt protections are now being dismantled by politicians at the request of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Based on the consultation documents for the North Queensland prescribing trial, for instance, pharmacists will have powers to prescribe S4 medications, such as asthma treatments and insulin therapy.

And both Victoria and NSW have decided to let pharmacists prescribe (and dispense) S4 antibiotics for UTIs.