THE Victorian Pharmacy Authority (VPA) has flagged ongoing close scrutiny of "commercial arrangements that pharmacies have with third parties," to ensure that the ownership provisions specified in the Victorian Pharmacy Regulation Act 2010 are upheld.
In an update issued yesterday, the Authority said it was "aware of recent media reports referring to commercial arrangements with pharmacies and apparent moves by non-pharmacist corporations to enter pharmacy ownership".
The VPA didn't provide further details, but presumably it's referring to reports about Ramsay Health's expansion of pharmacy operations (PD 31 Aug).
The update also says the authority is aware of media coverage "suggesting that certain corporate entities use their corporate structures to get around state/territory pharmacy ownership legislation" - a reference to a Fairfax story earlier this year about Chemist Warehouse's "innovative corporate structure".
In Victoria a person must not have a proprietary interest in a pharmacy business unless they are a registered pharmacist, a company whose directors are all registered pharmacists, or an eligible friendly society, the VPA noted.
However "the Act does not prevent a pharmacy owner from entering into a commercial arrangement with a third-party service provider or banner group," the update adds.
MEANWHILE the VPA communiqu also detailed three recent Panel Hearings where a "failure of good pharmacy practice" was found.
In each case pharmacists had failed to ensure that records of all transactions in S8 poisons had been accurately recorded.
In one matter the pharmacist was also reprimanded for failure to maintain dedicated prescription reception and counselling points with opaque privacy screens, and failure to provide sufficient pharmacist staff to meet the dispensing workload on Saturdays.
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