FEDERAL Government needs to revamp the Rural Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (RPMA), to ensure the continued viability of regional, rural and remote pharmacies, a leading pharmacist believes.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia National Vice President, Trent Twomey, warned delegates watching the Australian Pharmacy Professional (APP) Conference online, that the current RPMA fell short of what was needed to protect pharmacies outside metropolitan areas, during a session at the Australian Pharmacy Professional (APP) Conference on Fri.
"It's insufficient to meet the costs of maintaining a rural or remote pharmacy," he said.
Twomey also called on the Government to abandon the "redundant" PhARIA model for assessing the remoteness of a pharmacy, and shift to the Modified Monash model, which is used for other pieces of health infrastructure.
"It's nonsensical that we can say we want to integrate community pharmacy better into the health infrastructure when we measure ourselves differently," he said.
"This will require an investment on behalf of the Commonwealth to ensure things link indexation happen to the RPMA and to ensure that regional pharmacies - not just rural and remote pharmacies - which are a large part of our network, are looked after just like regional medical practices."
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