January 2026
News
In this issue
| Emergency Arrangements for Continued Dispensing |
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| Discover the Latest Workflow and Multistore Solutions |
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| Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours |
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| End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense |
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| When to Run the January Monthly Drug Update |
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| Is your NASH certificate expiring soon? |
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| Where to find fee changes from 1 January 2026 |
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| This Month's PBS Changes |
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Emergency Arrangements for Continued Dispensing
From 10 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, a temporary PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure has been put in place to support people affected by the bushfires in New South Wales to continue to access their PBS subsidised medicines.
This PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure will support access to a wider range of PBS medicines than under ongoing Continued Dispensing arrangements, covering most medicines on the General Schedule of the PBS. For further information, please see the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Continued Dispensing Arrangements webpage.
The 2 December Fred Dispense drug file has been updated with the expanded list. When dispensing eligible authority items, please remember to use 123 as the authority number and select the ‘A2022CD or other emergency code’ checkbox. In the Enter Streamlined Code or Phone Approval No: field, type A1225CD in place of any other code.
For continued dispensing related queries please refer to the link above. If you have any other questions, refer to Dispense a Continued Dispensing Supply or contact Fred Help.
Discover the Latest Workflow and Multistore Solutions
Check out the latest Fred & MedView solution offerings now operating in pharmacies across Australia
Fred Help Christmas and New Year Hours
Fred Help will be available during Christmas and New Year.
Happy Holidays! We suggest that you print out this calendar and display it prominently in your dispensary during the festive season. This will ensure that all of your staff are aware of the hours they can contact us via the Fred Help Portal, should they require support.
Please refer to the Fred Service Summary for reference.
| DATE | FRED HELP OFFICE HOURS (AEDT) |
|---|---|
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Monday 22 December 2025 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Tuesday 23 December 2025 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Wednesday 24 December 2025 (Christmas Eve) |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Thursday 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Saturday 27 December 2025 |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
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Sunday 28 December 2025 |
8:00 AM –6:00 PM (Emergencies Only) |
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Monday 29 December 2025 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Tuesday 30 December 2025 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Wednesday 31 January 2025 |
8:00 AM – 9:00 PM |
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Thursday 1 January 2026 (New Year's Day) |
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM (Emergencies Only |
| From Friday 2 January 2026 | Normal support hours |
You can access the Fred Help Portal via the pink Help Portal icon on any of our Fred products or visit: cx.fred.com.au. You can also check the status of any other tickets raised in the portal as well.
End-of-Year Process in Fred Dispense
The end-of-year process must be run on your last trading day of the year after closing, or before opening on your first trading day of the new year. This process removes the previous year's Safety Net entitlement details, and prepares a “clean slate” for the new year. For details, see End-of-Year Process
When to Run the January Monthly Drug Update
The best time to run the first monthly drug update of the new year is immediately before or after running the end-of-year process.
If you do not run the drug update before the end of December, Fred Dispense will remind you to run it at the start of your first trading day in January.
Checking your NHS fees for the new year
NHS fees and markups are updated automatically in your monthly drug update, but we recommend you check your NHS fees table after running the update, to familiarise yourself with the new fees and ensure they have been updated correctly.
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From the Setup menu, select NHS Fees.
Shortcut: Press Alt+S, then press N.
Non-standard fees
- If you click No, a blue message reminds you to check and adjust the fees manually.
- If you click Yes, the Drug Update continues with the standard fees.
Is your NASH certificate expiring soon?
The NASH certificate expires every two years and needs to be manually renewed on PRODA then uploaded into Fred Connect.
The NASH certificate is required to ensure HI Services, MySL and MyHR continue to be operational.
If your NASH certificate is about to expire, you will receive an email from Fred IT with instructions on how to renew and upload it.
How to check your NASH certificate expiry
To check the expiry of your most current NASH certificate, follow these steps:
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Open Fred Connect.
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Select the Plugins tab.
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Select the eRx config tab, then click the eRx Adapter Configuration button.
The window that pops up shows you your certificates and their expiry dates.
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Make sure that the certificate that starts with "general" is selected. If it is not selected, then select it and click Next to make sure you are using the most current certificate.
For more information on updating your NASH certificate, see NASH Certificate.
Where to find fee changes from 1 January 2026
The fee changes are under embargo and cannot be published until 1 January 2026.
The fee change information will be available in the Fred Help Portal once the embargo lifts.
Check the News section in the Fred Help Portal from 1 January for the latest updates. https://cx.fred.com.au/hc/en-au/sections/4406738516111-News
This Month's PBS Changes
For the full Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits, go to the PBS website at http://www.pbs.gov.au/ where you can search the schedule by drug name.
For your convenience, we've also uploaded a printable summary of this month's important PBS changes to this site.
The next edition of the PBS Summary of Changes will be published here on 12 January 2026. However, the same information will be available earlier in the Fred Help Portal once the embargo lifts. Check the News section in the Fred Help Portal from 1 January 2026 for the latest updates. https://cx.fred.com.au/hc/en-au/sections/4406738516111-News
For Highly Specialised Drugs (HSD) items (CAR and non-CAR), please refer to the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits as well as Services Australia to confirm whether the PBS item code for a HSD is eligible to be dispensed and claimed by your pharmacy type.