Pharmacy Daily | Patients shouldn’t bear meds costs

PATIENTS and pharmacists should not be forced to bear the costs of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listed medicines during the current bushfire crisis, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia believes.

Welcoming the Victorian Government's decision to implement emergency dispensing rules to allow pharmacists to supply full PBS quantities of medicines to patients affected by the fires in the state, Guild Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, called on the Federal Government to move to ease the financial cost to patients.

Under the emergency order issued yesterday (PD breaking news), Victorian pharmacists will be allowed to supply Schedule 4 products to patients without a prescription if they are satisfied there is a need to ensure continuity of care and where it is not practical for the patient to get a prescription in time to meet their need for the medication, until 01 Apr.

"This is a sensible and important announcement during this very distressing time for patients impacted by the bushfire disaster to help ensure they continue to have access to important medicines and recognises the expertise of pharmacists in identifying where an emergency supply would be deemed appropriate," Tassone said.

"Whilst the Victorian Government must be congratulated, the next step is for the Commonwealth Government to ensure that such emergency provisions of prescription-only medicines have a PBS subsidy applied where applicable for any PBS listed medicine.

"Patients should not be expected to meet higher out of pocket costs for their PBS prescription medicines during a natural disaster or where circumstances genuinely prevent them from obtaining another prescription to ensure continual supply."

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia National President, Dr Chris Freeman, echoed the call for Federal support saying "the next step is also to enable access to PBS subsidy for medicines supplied in emergencies so patients do not have the shock of unexpected out-of-pocket expenses when accessing the regular medicines during a crisis."