Campaign against 60-day dispensing smacks of self-interest

Sensible pharmacy reform to double the amount of medicine a person can collect with each script from chemists to 60 days and allow doctors to prescribe 12 months’ supply is facing tough resistance as the opposition and crossbenchers push for the Albanese government to renegotiate the changes with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and community pharmacies.

Health Minister Mark Butler announced the reforms in April – and the Pharmacy Guild has been screaming blue murder ever since, claiming they would result in the closure of 650 pharmacies around Australia and the loss of 20,000 jobs. It also floated the alarming spectre of shortages if people pick up twice as many medicines.

The regulations are due to be registered as a policy on Friday but the opposition, the Jacqui Lambie Network and the Greens are attempting to pressure the government into renegotiating the deal with the pharmacy sector. They fear the government had not consulted effectively with community pharmacists on how the changes would impact them and want the government to consider increasing the dispensing fee in the community pharmacy agreement to cover the revenue lost by the reforms or even simply reimburse them for losses incurred.

Such last-minute brinkmanship is hard to understand. In fact, the reforms were first recommended by an independent expert body, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, in 2018 but never adopted by the previous government. The committee provides independent critiques of pharmaceutical submissions.

Labor promised to make medicines more affordable in last year’s election campaign, a sentiment unanimously endorsed yesterday by senators belonging to the three parties planning to stymie the regulations in their current form.

Butler said in April the changes would halve the cost for consumers who have chronic conditions such as heart disease, cholesterol, Crohn’s disease and hypertension. The government is expected to save $1.2 billion over four years in dispensing fees and attempted to address industry concerns by promising all that money would be directly reinvested in community pharmacies to help them expand their services.

Despite the wariness of senators, there appears to be widespread community support for the reforms. An exclusive Resolve Political Monitor survey conducted for the Herald after the May budget found 72 per cent of voters agreed with plans to double the number of medicines customers can collect with each prescription, from one to two months’ supply, despite complaints from pharmacy owners about the change.

The Pharmacy Guild, disparagingly known as Australia’s most powerful lobbying group, has entrenched a model that no government dared question until now. The guild, never a fan of the PBAC committee due to its independence, started bombarding MPs with calls and emails as soon as the reforms were announced, while its president Trent Twomey turned himself into a public spectacle, choking back tears, swearing at politicians and crying poor on behalf of his fellow pharmacists, before eventually issuing an emotive report warning of massive job losses and closures.

The Pharmacy Guild’s report claims have been disputed. Certainly, some chemists may be adversely affected by the reforms, but Australians know the pharmacy sector has just emerged from the massive cornucopia of the COVID-19 years when chemists reaped huge windfalls from the unprecedented demand for masks, tests and drugs.

The pharmacy sector is largely amalgamating into chains. Most are well enough insulated to cope with the reforms. However, the Pharmacy Guild’s campaign seems to have been spectacularly successful in influencing politicians to believe that smaller chemists will suffer unfairly. But given the profits all earned during the pandemic, the Pharmacy Guild’s business as usual opposition to reform is no longer tenable and smacks of straight out greed.

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