RAMSAY Pharmacy ceo Peter Giannopoulos has argued the case for corporate ownership as an option for Australian pharmacies, during testimony at a second day of public hearings in the Queensland inquiry into the establishment of a pharmacy council and transfer of pharmacy ownership last Mon.
Giannopoulos said economies of scale that aggregated corporate structures can bring would help support pharmacy services in areas which may not otherwise be economically feasible for pharmacist owners.
"One of the catalysts for developing our franchise business was that there's a distinct disconnect between the transition of care between hospital care, for example, within an acute setting of the hospital, and there's a gap that occurs when patients are transferred during a hospital admission into the community," Giannopoulos told the panel.
He went on to say that the impact of technology and the need for collaborative medicine through a patient's journey demand services in areas that for individual pharmacies would be prohibitive in cost.
"The economies of scale as a corporate are such that we view a business as an aggregated business, so we're able to support what would otherwise be marginal businesses," the Ramsay ceo said.
He added that Ramsay rejects the concept of full vertical integration which would see pharmaceutical companies own pharmacies.
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