The Government has confirmed it will press ahead with plans to remove common medicines such as paracetamol, aspirin and antacids from the PBS.

The decision follows advice from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee announced earlier this year by Health Minister Sussan Ley.

At the time Ms Ley said the government was paying a lot of money for people to access paracetamol and other over-the-counter medications on script that was not necessarily sustainable and not necessarily in the interest of patients overall.

“I’m confident this is in the interests of consumers, it’s in the interest of our budget and in the interests of our whole medicine supply chain,” she said.

The list of PBAC recommendations for delisting includes brands of aspirin, folic acid, antacids, some vitamins and supplements and glucose and ketone testing strips.