CLOSE to one-in-five pharmacies across Australia are failing to turn a profit, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National Vice President, Trent Twomey, told delegates at the Pharmacy Connect conference in Sydney last Fri.
Dismissing claims that pharmacists received a "windfall gain" from the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement, and that pharmacies recorded greater profit ratios than any other health network, Twomey cited Australian Taxation Office figures which highlighted the weak financial position of many pharmacies.
"The ATO's own data has said that 17% of those 5,700 community pharmacies [in Australia] trade at a loss," Twomey said.
"We went to the ATO and our team looked at the profit ratios of general practices... general practices are three times more profitable than community pharmacy," he concluded.
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