Welcome ministers
October 22, 2013
THE new Federal Health
Minister, Peter Dutton, recently
reiterated the Coalition’s election
commitment to honouring the
Fifth Community Pharmacy
Agreement.
Speaking at the Terry White
Group’s conference last week,
Mr Dutton stressed the need for
certainty and predictability for
health related small businesses.
Mr Dutton emphasised the
need for businesses to be ‘justly
rewarded’ for the risks they take,
referring to the need to receive
an ‘adequate’ and ‘sound’ return
on their invested capital.
He said primary health care will
be one of his highest priorities as
Health Minister and that he saw
‘a major role in primary care for
pharmacy’.
He made clear that he wanted
to work with community
pharmacy on ‘cost-effective ways
to deliver professional services’ as
part of a more ‘coordinated’ and
‘integrated’ primary health care
system.
The Minister repeated the
Coalition’s commitment to
a fundamental review of the
Personally Controlled Electronic
Health Record (PCEHR) to put it
back on track.
However he remained committed
to moving towards a paperless
script environment with patients
continuing to choose from where
their scripts are dispensed.
The Guild also welcomes and
acknowledges the appointment
last week of Catherine King as
Shadow Minister for Health.
Ms King brings considerable
experience to the portfolio,
having been Parliamentary
Secretary to the Health Minister
in the Labor Government. We
also welcome Shadow Assistant
Minister for Health, Melissa
Parke, and Shadow Parliamentary
Secretary for Health, Amanda
Rishworth, to their portfolios.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 22 Oct 13To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 22 Oct 13
