Jade Jungwirth
Pharmacy owners across the country have slammed the federal government’s new 60-day dispensing scheme, which will enable patients to buy two months’ worth of medicine for the price of a one-month prescription.
The scheme begins on September 1 and will roll out in three stages over the next year.
According to Malmsbury Pharmacy owner Beshr Farid, an independent report initiated through the Pharmacy Guild found that, on average, pharmacies would lose as much $170,000 a year under the new scheme.
“We were told in April that this was happening. As a fact. No consultation,” Farid told the Express.
“I’m lucky my pharmacy is viable with no bank loan, but other pharmacies that have loans won’t be able to afford this.
“We make money from dispensing and use that to subsidise free services such as deliveries, blood pressure checks and Webster packs. The result of the scheme will be a reduction of hours and the need to charge for services that were previously provided for free,” he said.
“Based on what I’ve seen in New Zealand and the UK when the scheme was introduced, it’s likely that between 300-400 pharmacies will close around Australia,” Farid said.
Stacey Mannix, a co-owner of the McKenzie Davey Pharmacy in Castlemaine, told the Express that patients on healthcare cards would not benefit from the changes because it would take them longer to reach the safety net.
“At the moment, after the patients get 36 scripts, they receive the rest for free, but the new system will mean they reach the 36 scripts much later,” she said.
“The government has said it will reinvest the savings into pharmacies, but it’s not actually new money, rather services that were already being paid for, the money is just being redistributed differently.”
Pharmacists are also worried about the potential impacts the new scheme will have on medication shortages.
Gary Leung, who owns pharmacies in Maldon and Strathdale, said that medicine shortages, particularly since COVID, were not new, but implementing 60-day dispensing would only exacerbate the problem.
“Some people will hoard medications, while many others will struggle to find any. Last but not least it will increase the risk for potential drug overdose,” Leung said.
Federal MP Lisa Chesters will be meeting with a number of local pharmacy owners in early June to discuss their concerns.
“I’ve met with several local pharmacists to hear their concerns and have passed these back to the Minister. We want to keep working with pharmacists to support the important role they play in healthcare,” Ms Chesters told the Express.
“I caution people from taking advice from the pharmacy lobby in the form of a frankly, dishonest and cynical scare campaign.
“When this change was first being considered, the Health Minister and Department gave the guild plenty of notice and spent four weeks in lengthy negotiations. The guild walked away from that process and an agreement couldn’t be reached.”
Ms Chesters is confident that overall demand for medicines will remain unchanged and the reform won’t add to shortages.
“The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which recommended the 60-day dispensing in 2018, has advised that of the list of the 320 medicines eligible for the scheme, only seven of them are currently experiencing a shortage without some alternative brand or formulation available.”
According to Ms Chesters, the government will launch the National Scope of Practice Review later this year to look at how all health professionals – including pharmacists – can work to their full scope of practice.
