Achieving effective medicines governance: guiding principles for the roles and responsibilities of Medicines and Therapeutics Committees in Australian hospitals

Robust medicines governance is an essential component of good clinical governance for health service organisations. Standardisation of hospital medicines governance supports consistency in clinical care and equity in medicines access for patients both within those hospitals and at transitions of care. Medicines and Therapeutics Committees (MTCs) provide the strategic lead for medicines governance in Australian hospitals and have done so for many decades. Changes to the healthcare environment in which MTCs operate, however, have necessitated adaptation and evolution of these committees. Contemporary guidance is therefore required to support MTCs to provide consistent, high-quality medicines governance in Australia's modern healthcare environment. Achieving effective medicines governance: Guiding principles for the roles and responsibilities of Medicines and Therapeutics Committees in Australian hospitals was released in July 2025 with recommendations for the purpose, functions, structure, processes, documentation, communication and resourcing for Australian MTCs. The guidance is accompanied by a checklist to measure the performance of MTCs and other supporting resources. Australian hospital MTCs are encouraged to measure their practice against these guiding principles, using the associated tools, to achieve the best possible medicines governance within their available resourcing. Practice across jurisdictions is variable, and working to align individual MTC practices with the guiding principles will promote standardisation in approach to hospital medicines governance.