Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacist ATM?

CONTROVERSIAL Northern Territory pharmacist Rollo Manning says that the current system of dispensing medicines in Australia could be done from an automatic teller machine, “for all the value that pharmacists add to their supply function”. Writing on theconversation.com last month, Manning said the retail pharmacy industry in Australia “has successfully acquired a monopoly on supplying medicines paid for by the government or consumers”. He said the main issue is that there’s no requirement for the pharmacies receiving taxpayers’ money to do anything more than the simple task of dispensing. “A signature by the consumer to say they received the medicine is all that’s required for the Commonwealth to pick up the bill... there is no more accountability for the $2 billion to be paid out by the PBS,” Manning wrote. It’s part of a series of articles on the website about the pharmacy sector - CLICK HERE to view.

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