THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia has alleged that Ramsay Health may be using hospital medicines purchasing contracts to supply community pharmacies in the Ramsay Pharmacy Group.
Guild president George Tambassis said if this behaviour is occurring "it would run contrary to the longstanding requirement by suppliers that there be separate purchasing arrangements for hospital & community pharmacies, and that medicines that are supplied for use in hospitals are not able to be on-sold or provided for use in community pharmacy".
He said if Ramsay is undertaking such practices the company is deriving an "unfair competitive advantage" for its pharmacies.
While the Guild recognises the different requirements of hospitals in meeting the needs of in-patients versus those of PBS out-patients, "if large hospital providers are able to negotiate valuable medicine pricing arrangements on a contract basis that continue to be excluded from Price Disclosure, there must be a clear separation of pricing and supply for hospitals versus that for any community pharmacy that might operate under that hospital's corporate banner," Tambassis said.
He confirmed the Guild had written to a wide range of suppliers seeking an "absolute assurance" that they are not allowing Ramsay or other hospital providers to use their hospital discounts and trading terms for medicines supplied through community pharmacies.
The move follows earlier measures initiated by the Guild "to try to ensure that the Ramsay Pharmacy Group's operations comply with pharmacy ownership laws".
In recent weeks Ramsay has flagged a major acceleration of its push into community pharmacy, with aspirations to operate about 300 franchised Ramsay Pharmacy outlets by 2020 (PD 24 Jul).
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