MOVES to temporarily nationalise the pharmaceutical wholesaling sector to ensure equity of access to medicines across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, should not be ruled out, the Rural Pharmacy Network Australia (RPNA) believes.
In a statement issued this morning the group, which represents pharmacists operating in rural and remote areas flagged concerns about the supply chain.
"Australia now more than ever needs a system such as the Community Service Obligation (CSO) to ensure equity of access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines for all Australians," a spokesperson said.
"Events of the past five to six weeks have shown that the CSO does not function in the way that has been touted.
"The [Federal] Government has sought to intervene by adjusting wholesaler deeds, allowing wholesalers to collaborate and so on.
"But these interventions are not addressing the root cause of the problems.
"The CSO is supposed to be about equity of access but has never been used solely for that purpose.
"COVID-19 may be a 'force majeure' event, but it has exposed the systemic problems with pharmaceutical distribution in Australia.
"It is not acceptable to treat this as a one-off event and try and smooth things over, or to try to rebuild the same flawed system after the virus is controlled.
"Deeper consideration needs to be given as to how the CSO can be re-engineered so that it actually provides equity of access to PBS medicines for all Australians rather than just pretend to.
"RPNA is calling on the Commonwealth to delve deep into the problems of the CSO system and consider radical options such as temporarily nationalising the medicine supply chain for the duration of the pandemic and eventually returning wholesalers to cooperative ownership by s90 Approved pharmacists.
"It is only by making the wholesalers 100% accountable to their market and the principles of PBS Equity of Access that another systemic failure of the pharmaceuticals supply chain can be avoided."
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