Pharmacy Daily | Utilise pharmacist skills

Using pharmacists’ skills better could help assuage concerns over rising health costs, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) national president Grant Kardachi said. The comments followed Health Minister Peter Dutton’s comments in the Sydney Morning Herald that an overhaul of Medicare would be needed, due to spiralling costs, with figures quoted including an annual spend increase of 120% since 2002-03, and 79% growth in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) spending. Kardachi said the MedsChecks, Diabetes MedsChecks and Home Medicines Reviews, which the government had recently capped, were valuable in ensuring quality use of medicines and medication compliance. “They are services which improve health outcomes and help to reduce the overall budgetary impact by helping to manage existing conditions and ensuring people are taking their medicines appropriately and as directed.” Kardachi said the PSA’s Budget submission also went over ways pharmacists could reduce health costs, including better utilisation of pharmacists’ skills to address unmet needs. “The introduction of the caps reduces the very services which are part of the solution.” A Generic Medicines Industry Association (GMiA) spokesperson has said that health minister Peter Dutton’s reference to the growing cost of the PBS could be misinterpreted, given that “government expenditure on the PBS is in decline, according to the Government’s own data.” Treasury’s estimate for 2013-14 PBS will be $526 million lower than budgeted in May 2013 and the Health Department’s forecast for the next four years will be almost $4 billion lower than original May budget estimates, GMiA said. “No further reform of the PBS is warranted,” it concluded.

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