Pharmacy Daily | PBS reform opportunity

TASMANIAN PSA branch president Shane Jackson says that the threat to pharmacy posed by accelerated price disclosure can also be seen as a significant opportunity for the profession. The changes announced by former PM Kevin Rudd just before he called last weekend’s election have led to a major campaign from stakeholders across the sector, pushing for compensation for reforms which will hit the bottom lines of pharmacies by an average of $90,000 each next year. However Jackson says that any “restructure package” will give an opportunity to transform the remuneration model for community pharmacy - to remove the focus on trading terms with generic medicines and instead look at remuneration for services that pharmacies provide through community pharmacy. “In my view, we must have a community pharmacy restructure package...without this a significant number of pharmacy jobs will be lost, pharmacy graduates will struggle to find intern jobs, and the services that the community has expected pharmacists to deliver will reduce,” Jackson said. He urged that rather than a token gesture, any package should focus on changes that the sector has been trying to make but has struggled to realise “because of the current remuneration structure of the community pharmacy agreements”. Jackson said the Pharmacy Practice Incentives program should expand both in terms of the number of PPI programs available as well as in remuneration offered. “Simply, community pharmacy has been delivering too much to the community for no remuneration and this must stop. “The community must understand that these services come at a cost... these services should be funded and delivered appropriately”. Jackson said the current situation creates an opportunity to have a more transparent mechanism around community pharmacy reimbursement for pharmaceuticals. “It is this lack of transparency that has allowed the media to portray community pharmacists as greedy, when in essence the system agreed to by the Guild and the Government has allowed this to occur,” he added. Jackson said pharmacists should be able to claim a consultation fee for dealing with minor illnesses, adding that while PPI programs provide some funding “it is by no means sufficient if the government is going to gouge community pharmacy remuneration for the supply of pharmaceuticals”. Services provided by pharmacists reduce healthcare system spending and we “must now be remunerated appropriately”. He said the next community pharmacy agreement should reflect the new environment, with the changes an opportunity to restructure community pharmacy remuneration that could “futureproof the profession”.

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