PATIENTS living in the rural Western Australian town of Mullewa will have to make a round trip of almost 200km to access medicines when the only pharmacy in the area closes next month.
Mullewa La Croix Pharmacy owner, Michael Ibrahim, told The West Australian that the town's declining population meant the business was no longer viable.
Ibrabim said he had tried to give the pharmacy away, but could not find anyone willing to take on the business in the town which had a population of 447 when the last census was taken in 2016.
With the pharmacy closing on 10 Jan 2021, the nearest pharmacies will be in Geraldton to the west, or south to Morawa - both close to 100km from Mullewa.
"It's going to have a huge impact on people who don't have a car and people who can't drive," he said.
The announcement of the pharmacy's closure comes just over a year after Ibrahim was forced to close another pharmacy he was co-owner of in Mount Magnet (PD 02 Dec 2019).
At the time the Rural Pharmacy Network Australia (RPNA) warned that more pharmacies would go out of business if there was not a Rural Pharmacy Viability Package included in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) (PD 04 Dec 2019).
"[There is] inadequate recognition of the higher per-patient dispensing and non-dispensing workload faced by rural pharmacies, soaring labour costs, inadequate recognition of patient-centric collaborative care already being provided by rural pharmacies, funding models that undermine the professional role and commercial viability of rural community pharmacies," a RPNA spokesperson said.
The 7CPA included an allocation of $24.6 million for rural support programs, including a 10% increase in the Rural Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (PD 18 Jun).
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