THE Federal Government must pause its planned 60-day pharmacy dispensing rollout because of the “adverse impact on regional people”, Member for Mallee Anne Webster has said.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia said almost one in four of the 1000 community pharmacies surveyed had reduced opening hours and 54 per cent had increased fees for services.
“From its inception, this was a bad policy for people who heavily rely on their local pharmacy to access medical care and medications,” Dr Webster said.
“In the regions, if a pharmacy is forced to close or reduce hours, the next option is not a suburb away – it could be a 100km or away.
“The government needs to take time to refine the policy to ensure no rural and regional pharmacies and their communities will be adversely affected.”
Pharmacies said aged-care residents could be slugged more than $800 per year for their weekly Webster-pak medicines as a result of the changes.
“These medicines are currently individually portioned and delivered to 188,000 of our vulnerable elderly Australians every week by pharmacies free of charge to aged-care residences,” Dr Webster said.
“However, if pharmacies can no longer provide this service for free, sadly it will be the elderly who will have to pay.
“It is simply not possible for the stretched nursing workforce in aged care to sort medications – nurses have told me they simply won’t have the time to do that and safely carry out their other duties.”
If the measure passes Federal Parliament, the overhaul of pharmacy operations would start on September 1 and a total of 4000 lines of medication added to the program in December and March.
Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler said people with a Medicare card buying just one of the medicines on the list would save up to $180 every year.
“When fully implemented, at least six million Australians will halve their medicine costs and need fewer visits to the GP to get the medicines they use the most, easing the cost of living and putting millions back into the pockets of Australian patients,” he said.
“The decision to write a script with two months’ worth of medicine will be made by a patient’s GP or other prescriber, based on their professional clinical judgment. The option to prescribe a one-month supply remains.
“Every year, nearly a million Australians are forced to delay or go without a medicine that their doctor has told them is necessary for their health.
“The government continues to work with all parts of the pharmacy sector on the implementation of this policy.”
Kerang pharmacy owner Kin Chong said the Federal Government push to change dispensing from monthly to bimonthly would wipe an average $170,000 from the bottom line of every pharmacy in the country.
Mr Chong, who also owns a pharmacy in Barham, said the cuts would almost certainly cost jobs and curtail local services.
“This decision will rip $4.5 billion out of pharmacy incomes in four years – and government says it will reinvest $1.2 billion back to the pharmacy sector, although we don’t have all the fine print on that plan,” he said.
“Every medication we sell has a dispensing fee, but from here on it will be one for us and two for the customer.”
Mr Chong, who has been on the Pharmacy Guild’s Victorian board for the past nine years, said small pharmacies in country towns would suffer most and some one-person operations could be forced to close.
