CHANGES to the funding model for the Rural Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (RPMA) could see remote pharmacies cut services or shut their doors, the Rural Pharmacy Network of Australia (RPNA) warns.
Under the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) $21 million a year will be provided to pharmacies in regional and rural parts of the country through the RPMA, a $5 million increase on the 6CPA, however, the increased funding is set to be shared across an additional 400 pharmacies (PD 04 Jan) under the Modified Monash Model for rural classification (MMM).
Earlier this week incoming Pharmacy Guild of Australia NSW Branch Committee member, Tim Hewitt, told Pharmacy Daily that the new funding matrix appeared to be taking money from "truly remote pharmacies" to support stores in "towns served by a number of pharmacies" (PD 11 Jan).
Speaking with Pharmacy Daily, Bourke-based pharmacist and RPNA spokesman, Peter Crothers, said the new funding model had delivered "a really perverse outcome for a rural healthcare accessibility program like the RPMA whose purpose has always been to underwrite the commercial viability of pharmacies in communities that would not otherwise have access to one".
"So the RPMA now meets that policy objective much less effectively than before," he said.
"While pharmacy services to many rural and remote communities will now be more secure, they tend to be the communities where they were already most secure but in at least 200 other communities, more than half of which are among the most remote and vulnerable, pharmacy services will now actually be less secure.
"And that's another kick in the guts for bush communities where primary health care is already under threat.
"We have RNPA members in MMM5 and MMM6 [locations] who tell us they're now reviewing low-return services such as deliveries and nursing home QUM services and considering cutting back trading hours.
"There might be some for whom this is the last straw leading to closure."
The RNPA said the changes weakened the rationale for the RPMA leaving "it vulnerable to being being axed."
"Losing the RPMA would be catastrophic for rural community pharmacy," Crothers said.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 15 Jan 21
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