HEALTH Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed that the government's response to the controversial King Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation will be handed down in about four weeks' time.
Hunt spoke yesterday at the 2018 TerryWhite Chemmart Masterclass in Melbourne and, without revealing the full outcomes, noted that he had taken a "fairly conservative approach".
"Some of the recommendations were quite radical and would have shaken the pharmacy sector up...my primary objective has been to give you the security and continuity to get on with your business".
Hunt noted that one of the key King proposals, around watering down the current location rules model, had effectively already been rejected, with the government's successful legislation to remove the proposed 2020 sunset rules.
The minister said in so doing "a major threat to your bankability was removed".
He said other matters around the King Review were still awaiting finalisation under the cabinet process, but fundamentally "I want to provide surety for the current model and not disrupt pharmacy as it currently stands".
Questions from the audience about Medicare provider numbers for pharmacists and the removal of the $1 discount were greeted with a less encouraging response, with Hunt indicating little was likely to change in these areas.
However the minister said a solution to cash-flow issues around high cost medicines was imminent, and in his speech also urged states and territories to follow Victoria's lead and give pharmacies access to influenza vaccine stocks available under the National Immunisation Program, which are launching today.
Hunt is pictured above with TerryWhite Chemmart pharmacists, from left: Chris Campbell, Judy Plunkett, Lucy Walker, Brad Smithson and Susan Lee.
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