General News
4 May, 2023
Pharmacies fear shortages
PHARMACIES in Camperdown, Lismore and Derrinallum have expressed concerns about the Federal Government’s recent 60-day medication dispensing announcement.
PHARMACIES in Camperdown, Lismore and Derrinallum have expressed concerns about the Federal Government’s recent 60-day medication dispensing announcement.
The change is due to be implemented in September, with 100 of 300 medications to be available for 60-day dispensing.
The next 100 will be available from March 2024, with the final 100 eligible from September 2024.
Owners of Camperdown’s Healthsave Pharmacy and the Little Pharmacy and Shoe Shop Sarah Venn and Sarah Baker posted a video on their Facebook pages on Monday, April 24, expressing their concerns about what the announcement will mean for their pharmacies.
Ms Venn said the 60-day dispensing, while positive for those who are stable on their medications, can lead to shortages due to difficulties getting supplies into pharmacies.
“It could also mean that, if there’s medicines going to be out of stock, some people might have two boxes at home, but if there’s a shortage there’s going to be some people that miss out,” she said.
“First in, first served basis, there.
“Without having much lead-time into this and warning, pharmacies have budgeted for the next 12-18 months without knowing this, so it’s going to be a shock to all pharmacies that they’re not going to get the revenue in that they would have been.
“That’s going to put pressure on other services we offer like medicine packaging, vaccinations, free blood pressure checks, free signing of stat decs and the free certifying that we do. Our ability to offer those services as they currently are; we’re not sure what will happen.”
The pharmists shared a petition from the Pharmacy Guild three days later and called for the community to sign the petition.
“They’ve made that petition just to get a bit of feedback,” Ms Venn said.
“The website has a list of medicines that will be eligible for 60-day dispensing, and it also has an opportunity for the public to put forward any experiences they might have had with their pharmacies in getting medicine and shortages in the past few years.”
Ms Venn said she does not want the changes to have as negative impact on patients.
“No pharmacy wants this to impact on their patients, and we don’t want any pharmacy to be worse off either,” she said.
“We want to spend time talking to people and helping people; I don’t want to spend hours, like we already do each week, trying to manage stock.
“It should be easier for us to get stock, put an order in and get it the next day, rather than trying to get it from somewhere else.”
Trident Pharmacy owner Giri Santhanam, who works across both Derrinallum and Lismore, said community pharmacies will not be able to meet the demands of the changes.
“The current model of business is based on patients coming in monthly for their medications,” he said.
“If it’s going to be two-monthly, it will slash down what we generate as revenue.
“I have got some feedback from lots of patients, especially the elderly; they come out once a month or once a fortnight to meet people and keep themselves going.
“That’s going to be affected by the 60-day dispensing.”
Mr Santhanam said the changes would also affect the mental health of patients and pharmacists, many of whom take out large loans to buy the businesses.
“They won’t be able to meet repayment requirements, and a lot of staff will need to go for less hours or may be made redundant,” he said.
“It is a very harsh decision that the government has made. It’s an unfair way of treating the pharmacy profession as a whole.
“I’m getting my livelihood by working in my pharmacy and dispensing on a monthly basis, so I’ll be jobless for half of the month.
“Who will pay my livelihood for 15 days?”
Mr Santhanam also expressed concerns about the Medicare Safety Net.
“The current system of Safety Net is that patients on a concession get 36 prescriptions, then they are eligible for free medications every month,” he said.
“The 60-day dispensing will mean they won’t reach the Safety Net, so patients are going to lose money.”
Mr Santhanam called for the community to contact their local members of parliament.
Ms Venn said pharmacies are always supportive of their communities, and do their best, but now need support.
“We need everyone to understand what’s going to happen,” she said.
“I’d just like the Federal Government to listen to pharmacies, listen to and understand us.
“They said we were really helpful during the pandemic, so we’d just need them to have a bit of respect and to just talk with us a bit more, so we can work this out and come to a better agreement.”