GP-pharmacists feud flares with push for supermarket pharmacies

Pharmacists want to prescribe medicines — now GPs want to allow supermarkets to have pharmacy counters, as two of our most trusted professions lock horns in a turf war.

PHARMACY counters would jostle for space with the deli and fruit sections in supermarkets under a deregulation proposal being pushed by GPs, which will further inflame tensions with pharmacists.

It was immediately rejected by Pharmacy Guild SA president Nick Panayiaris who said community pharmacists remained highly accessible and continued to meet the needs of patients.

The proposal comes as Premier Peter Malinauskas vows to push national cabinet on Friday to boost support for GPs.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) in its proposals for the May federal budget is calling for a tripling of bulk-billing incentives, increased Medicare rebates and action to boost the GP workforce.

It also wants deregulation of rules on pharmacy ownership and locations, which RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins says will improve access and cut costs for consumers.

The budget submission says the restrictions “appear to be focused on protecting the vested interests of incumbent pharmacists” and comes amid a push for pharmacists to move into areas once tightly controlled by doctors, including prescribing drugs for customers with symptoms of urinary tract infection.

National president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Professor Trent Twomey

RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins

“Current pharmacy ownership and location regulations are outdated and extremely anti-competitive, and this inflates the cost to consumers and makes it harder to get medicines,” Dr Higgins said.

“Supermarket pharmacies are widespread in most western nations, including the US, the UK and all over Europe. Why not here?”

However, the guild’s Mr Panayiaris said: “The current network of community pharmacies is a highly professional, effective and efficient system that meets the needs of their community and provides timely access of medicines and pharmacy services.”

The call comes as the sectors are embroiled in a turf war, with Pharmacy Guild president Trent Twomey claiming pharmacists should be able to prescribe and dispense “all medicines for all people.”

The comments in a speech to the National Australian Pharmacy Students Association last month prompted Dr Higgins to say, “The Pharmacy Guild is out of control.”

She warned allowing pharmacists to expand into prescribing could lead to serious illnesses going undiagnosed.

Ahead of national cabinet on Friday, Mr Malinauskas said: “We are pouring ever more resources into hospitals – more beds, more doctors, more nurses, more ambulance officers, but we’ve got more people waiting in our emergency rooms who have got sicker while they have been waiting to see a GP. We need a massive overhaul of our primary healthcare system, particularly Medicare and the provision of bulk billing services.”