Pharmacy Daily | Guild, PSA at loggerheads

THE Pharmacy Guild has reacted strongly to claims by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia that the PSA was responsible for the increased funding for professional programs in the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement. The war of words follows a story in Pharmacy Daily earlier this week (PD Wed) in which the PSA said the allocation of $660m in budget funding for professional services “is a direct result of representations made by PSA” to Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Last night the Guild took the unprecedented step of circulating a robust rebuttal to its members, alleging that the PSA statement was “false and misleading”. “Such statements do a disservice to the dedicated Guild staff and elected officials who spent hundreds of hours negotiating the agreement,” the Guild said. “In order to set the record straight the Guild wishes to inform Members that the extra money added into the Agreement for professional services was negotiated by the Guild prior to 24 December. It was part of a formula negotiated by the Guild with the Government in recognition of the likely flow-on impact to pharmacy of further PBS reforms,” the special member newsletter said. Going further, the Guild added that the inclusion of PBS reform flow-ons in the Agreement and the parallel negotiations between the government and Medicines Australia (PD Wed) were “the reason the Guild couldn’t involve the PSA in the negotiations. “Since these reforms were to be introduced as part of the Budget it was not possible for the Guild to make any announcement about this additional money until Budget night,” the Guild said. The Guild said it regretted the necessity to circulate the letter “but we have had to do so because community pharmacists have sought clarification from us about the statements being made by the PSA”. MEANWHILE the Guild has also responded to concern by a group of pharmacy academics (PD yesterday) about the demise of the DMAS and PAMS programs under the Fifth Agreement - see p2 story.

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