The head of the powerful pharmacy lobby has launched an emotional attack on the Albanese government, Health Minister Mark Butler and several Labor MPs over plans to double the amount of medicine a person can collect with each script, saying “they don’t give a shit” about the impact on businesses.
Pharmacy Guild president Trent Twomey choked back tears during a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday, telling government MPs to “get off your arse” and talk to owners who would be forced to cut staff, reduce hours and slash services when they suffered estimated $170,000 losses each year under the change.
Butler has announced the government will increase the length of scripts from one to two months’ supply for 325 common medicines, halving the cost for consumers who have chronic conditions such as heart disease, cholesterol, Crohn’s disease and hypertension.
The government will save $1.2 billion over four years in dispensing fees. But to placate pharmacies, who have been lobbying against the policy by bombarding MPs with calls and emails, Butler promised all that money would be directly reinvested in community pharmacy to help them expand their services.
“I don’t pretend this is going to be easy for community pharmacy. I value the work that they do enormously and that is why we have phased this in over this year and next year,” the minister said on Wednesday.
However, the Guild is concerned about the income it will lose from out-of-pocket patient fees, which the lobby group has modelled at $2.3 billion over four years and the government puts at $1.6 billion over the same time frame.
“They’re not refunding that,” Twomey said. “The pharmacist is wearing the complete rest of the cut. And that’s what’s going to send these guys to the wall. And [Butler] just doesn’t seem to give a shit.
“If those spin doctors down there [in parliament] don’t want to believe what I say: Get off your arse. And go and talk to these guys [pharmacies].”
Twomey apologised for his language, saying: “I’m a North Queenslander. I don’t mean to swear, but they just don’t care. You know, this is supposed to be a government that cares. This is not how one operates.”
The 60-day dispensing policy was recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and is backed by doctor’s groups and the Consumer Health Forum, which say it will save patients a trip to the doctor each year as well as up to $180 on each medicine.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey with Health Minister Mark Butler last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“This is a really good move which shows the government is listening to the voices of consumers,” the consumer group’s chief executive Elizabeth Deveny said. “Every dollar saved at the pharmacy is money that can be spent on groceries or rent.”
But the president of the Guild, which is one of Australia’s biggest political donors, dismissed the consumer advocacy group as one that “receive[s] millions of dollars of funding from the Commonwealth Government” and had been briefed by the government before the pharmacy sector.
“We don’t know how this is going to work and we do have concern for our patients,” Twomey said.
He also warned of widespread medicine shortages and accused Butler of making “false claims” when the minister said that only seven medicines on the list were experiencing supply problems.
Butler said he wanted to “caution against some of the scare campaigns being put by the pharmacy lobby group” as he rejected the guild’s claims of widespread supply problems.
He said seven in the list of 325 were experiencing shortages and they were being closely monitored by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
“I caution people against taking advice from the pharmacy lobby group about supply arrangements that are monitored very closely by our medicines authorities,” Butler said.
“This will not impact the supply and demand of these 300 medicines... We have deliberately decided to phase in these arrangements over the course of this year and next year, so pharmacists are able to change their itinerary arrangements.”
Coalition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston backed in the guild’s concerns.
“Until we see the budget papers, we cannot be confident that this is a legitimate cost-of-living measure,” she said.
Canberra pharmacy owner Samantha Kourtis, appearing alongside Twomey on Wednesday, said there was no doubt she would have to cut staff and reduce trading hours, given the loss of profit.
“Small business owners, your community pharmacy where you and your loved ones live, have to make up for those cuts somewhere,” she said.
Butler said he would have liked to see the Coalition support the “important cost-of-living measure that’s good for hip pockets and good for Australians’ health”.
“Perhaps no one will be surprised that [Opposition leader Peter] Dutton, given the choice between backing patients or backing profit, has yet again decided to leave patients out in the cold,” he said.
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