CLOSE to 40% of pharmacists expect the value of community pharmacies in Australia to rise in the next 12 months, the University of Technology Sydney, Pharmacy Barometer reveals.
The results of the 2020 Barometer reading, released earlier this week, revealed the proportion of pharmacy owners and managers who reported that sale prices of pharmacies in 2021 will increase, jumped to 37.1%, from 25.2% in 2019, while 40.5% anticipate values to rise in the next three years.
Of those who anticipate values to go up over the next 12 months, the average forecast increase was 14.7%.
"Pharmacists' sense of confidence in the medium-term future based on projected value changes appears to be stronger over three-year projections when compared with 12 months ago," the report said.
"With the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) providing a guaranteed level of income through dispensing remuneration, a growing sense of confidence in the economic stability of the profession has emerged, with 68% of pharmacists believing their value will increase or remain the same over the next three years.
"Pharmacists appear to have taken the challenges of COVID-19 and the introduction of the 7CPA in their stride and emerged more confident.
"Having accustomed themselves with the strategic changes of the 6CPA, they have embraced the potential stability the 7CPA provides for the future viability of pharmacy and are more confident in the potential growth opportunities it provides over the medium-term future than that of the 6CPA."
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