Xenophon backs pharmacy
June 23, 2014
SOUTH Australian independent
senator Nick Xenophon has given
a rousing endorsement to the
community pharmacy sector,
saying that the industry’s value as a
network of health professionals “is
taken for granted by many.”
Speaking via video link to the
NSW Pharmacy Guild National
Convention & Exhibition in Sydney
on Fri, Xenophon showed a keen
awareness of major issues in the
pharmacy sector, including the fact
that the “supermarket duopoly -
Coles and Woolworths - sits on the
sidelines jealously eyeing-off the
pharmacy market.
“But we know that if pharmacy
were ever deregulated, the
supermarkets will poison the
fruit, commodifying a service that
Australians have come to trust with
their lives,” Xenophon said.
He warned that if pharmacy goes
to supermarkets the community
would “be on the receiving end
of all the same abuses of market
power we have seen in food, petrol
and alcohol retailing.”
Xenophon said he believes the
role of pharmacists will become
increasingly important in coming
years as Australia’s health system
comes under more pressure
from rising costs and an ageing
population.
He said pharmacists had been
taken for granted by the previous
Labor government which “sneakily
and disgracefully” announced
shorter price reduction cycles last
year prior to the election.
And despite opposition from
the Coalition at the time, once in
government they carried them out.
“The pharmacy sector fully
supports price disclosure, but
accelerated price disclosure was
a clear breach of the Community
Pharmacy Agreement,” he said.
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