For authorised midwives · NMW prescribers
From 1 February 2025, authorised midwives are eligible for specific PBS Prescriber Bag items under section 93AA of the National Health Act 1953. DocPouch is the ordering platform. Priceline Pharmacy Sunshine Marketplace dispenses, dispatches, and ships free Australia-wide.
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Section 93AA of the National Health Act 1953 is the legal authority for authorised midwife participation in the PBS Prescriber Bag scheme. We process every NMW order against that framework with the same audit trail required of medical practitioners under section 93.
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Recommendations from the September 2024 PBAC intracycle meeting relating to endorsed midwife prescribing took effect on 1 February 2025. The PBS schedule now flags items eligible for midwife supply with the MW prescriber-type code.
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Many authorised midwives work across home births, group practice, and outreach in regional areas. We deliver to every Australian postcode at no charge, with cold-chain handling for the items that need it.
How the NMW Prescriber Bag flow works
The flow is identical for medical practitioners, nurse practitioners, and authorised midwives. Eligibility frameworks differ; the legal paperwork is the same PB052 in every case.
Authorised midwives are issued a PBS prescriber number with the NMW prefix once the Services Australia application is approved through HPOS. We verify it on every order.
Select from the items flagged MW in the live PBS Prescriber Bag schedule. Maximum quantities, group rules, and stock-on-hand requirements apply identically to NMW orders.
The PB052 is a single triplicate form used by all eligible prescriber types. Sign, photograph or scan, and drop into DocPouch.
Priceline Pharmacy Sunshine Marketplace dispenses against the live PBS schedule and ships free, with tracking. The original PB052 returns by reply-paid envelope.
Eligibility on one page
Recommendations from the September 2024 PBAC intracycle meeting were implemented in the PBS schedule effective 1 February 2025. Reference: pbs.gov.au/pbs/news/2025/02.
Authorised midwives are eligible for items flagged MW in the live PBS Prescriber Bag schedule, including adrenaline, lidocaine, naloxone, prochlorperazine, the penicillins, and methoxyflurane. The authoritative current list is published on pbs.gov.au.
One Prescriber Bag order per calendar month, per prescriber. Maximum-quantity and stock-on-hand rules under the National Health (Prescriber Bag Supplies) Determination 2024 (F2024L00414) apply identically to NMW orders.
Every order checks AHPRA registration against the public register. Suspended or expired registrations do not pass through to dispensing.
Endorsed midwife FAQ
Recommendations from the September 2024 PBAC intracycle meeting relating to endorsed midwife prescribing were implemented in the PBS schedule, taking effect on 1 February 2025. From that date, authorised midwives became eligible to participate in the PBS Prescriber Bag scheme under section 93AA, for items flagged MW.
The PBS schedule flags each Prescriber Bag item with the prescriber types eligible to order it. MW-flagged items at launch include adrenaline, lidocaine, naloxone, prochlorperazine, the penicillins, and methoxyflurane.
The PBS uses "authorised midwife" in the legislation. AHPRA describes the equivalent practitioner status as "endorsed for scheduled medicines". Both terms refer to a midwife who holds a notation on AHPRA registration authorising specific PBS prescribing rights, with a PBS prescriber number issued by Services Australia.
Apply through Services Australia using your HPOS account. A PRODA account is required to access HPOS. Once approved, you will receive a PBS prescriber number with the NMW prefix.
No. Eligibility is limited to items flagged MW in the live PBS schedule. Items not flagged MW remain restricted to the prescriber types they are flagged for (typically MP for medical practitioners and NP for authorised nurse practitioners).
To Priceline Pharmacy Sunshine Marketplace, Shop MM002, Sunshine Marketplace, 80 Harvester Road, Sunshine VIC 3020. Every DocPouch delivery includes a reply-paid envelope.
If you are not yet listed on AHPRA as endorsed for scheduled medicines, the AHPRA endorsement process is the first step. Once you hold your NMW prescriber number, your first DocPouch order takes about two minutes.
admin@docpouch.com.au · pharmacy phone (03) 9364 7133
