THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia seems to have little hope of a constructive outcome from the current Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation, with Guild national president George Tambassis yesterday expressing major misgivings about the process.
Speaking at APP's State of the Industry Symposium, Tambassis (pictured) particularly took issue with the Review's chair, Stephen King, saying he had "made major mistakes, some bad choices, he comes with some serious preconceived ideas...
"At the end of the day we've lost confidence in this gentleman."
Tambassis said the Guild had tried to work with King, but remains very concerned about his "conflicts and all the issues that he's raised".
The Guild president also questioned the preconceptions of another panel member, Jo Watson from the Consumer Health Forum and expressed disquiet that the CHF had been involved in some background work with the Review.
More shockingly, Tambassis also confirmed the Guild had discovered that the Review had approached the Australian Taxation Office in an attempt to obtain financial details about pharmacists via tax returns.
"There are serious issues around the review," he said.
"We are still as positive as we can be...we have put in an extremely positive submission, and a lot of the key points that we make in our submission the minister's also raised in his speech this morning which is wonderful," Tambassis said.
While a planned appearance by King at APP was cancelled, the Review will be the hot topic of a panel discussion at the conference this morning as well as at a Guild members-only breakfast.
The Health Department last week confirmed that the planned Feb release of the draft Review report has been delayed due to the serious illness of one of the Panel members (PD 04 Mar).
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