Pharmacy Daily | Sit down, talk and listen, says Lambie

SENATOR Jacqui Lambie has blasted the Federal Health Minister over the "unintended consequences" of the 60-DD policy in Parliament this week, and called on the minister to "put on his big-boy pants and sit down with the pharmacists and talk to them again - talk and listen. Get this right".

"I tell you what, the unintended consequences in the future for these smaller pharmacists will wipe them out, and I can tell you that no patient, no doctor and no pharmacy is going to win out of this.

"It will send us into a spiralling crisis," slammed the MP from Tasmania.

"You need to either come up with a compensation scheme for those people losing out or bring the pharmacists back to the table and get this right.

"I can assure you that this bill is not right. You need to look at the unintended consequences and meet them head on."

From Sep, six million Australians will have some of their prescription bill "cut in half," Lambie said.

The government says it will save those Australians $1.6 billion a year.

"That $1.6 billion in savings has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the pharmacies, unfortunately," Lambie explained.

Several House of Representatives MPs too have expressed their concern about the double dispensing measure in Parliament this week.

However, some MPs are in support of the measure such as Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah who said the "more conservative estimate of 60 days...strikes the right balance for the community and for the pharmacy sector".

"For those concerned about viability because they will lose their co-payments, which in my community amounts to around $180,000 a year, they are justifiably concerned.

"However, what this means for patients is a significant saving of $180 per medicine per year...and data shows that extending dispensing for chronic medications increases compliance by 20%."