Pharmacy Daily | Calls for end to Guild’s reign

FEDERAL Health Minister Nicola Roxon has found herself in the midst of a power struggle, after the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Consumer Health Forum and APESMA launched joint action calling for an end to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s exclusive Community Pharmacy Agreement negotiations. Reported in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, APESMA supported the calls by commissioning an Essential Research poll which looked at the responses of 1,038 Aussies in regards to the deals between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and drug companies. According to the poll results, 30% of respondents said they have heard of the deal, 62% of which said the deals reduced their trust in pharmacists. “We are outraged that the Pharmacy Guild and drug companies, motivated by profits, have caused unprecedented damage to the pharmacy profession,” said Chris Walton, CEO of APESMA. In the letter penned by the coalition to Roxon, the trio said called the exclusive negotiations “absurd”, adding that the Guild “only represents pharmacy owners, and is the organisation responsible for recent controversies which have damaged the reputation of Australian pharmacists”. In addition, Carol Bennett from the Consumer Health Forum told reporters from the Sydney Morning Herald that the public should know where the 5CPA’s $15 billion in funding is spent. “Unfortunately we currently do not know what is in the agreement, we do not fully monitor how the $15 billion is spent, and we do not measure its effectiveness in terms of real health outcomes,” she said. MEANWHILE the Pharmacy Guild has responded to the action saying it is “perplexing that the Consumers Health Forum would assert that ‘we currently do not know what is in the Agreement’ as the Agreement is a public document, “and there is no lack of accountability and independent evaluation of the effectiveness of its provisions”. “The Pharmacy Guild continues to work hard to maintain the trust the community places in pharmacists,” the Guild said. “The only people talking down the trust put in pharmacists is APESMA, which partly explains why the union has a small and dwindling membership,” the Guild added. The Guild also defended itself saying that in the Community Pharmacy Agreement negotiations it represents the overwhelming majority of community pharmacy owners. “As an industry, community pharmacy brings over 5,000 critical pieces of health infrastructure to the table,” the Guild said. “With such a huge investment in their custodianship of the PBS, it is only appropriate that community pharmacists be able to negotiate the ongoing sustainability and viability of their businesses directly with the Government,” the Guild added.

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