It has been a month since the PM – Anthony Albanese MP and his treasurer – Jim Chalmers MP handed down their sixty-day dispensing policy changes as part of the 2023 Federal Budget, and I know how many local community pharmacies were disappointed at the changes that will affect them.
Earlier this month, alongside senator the honourable Anne Ruston, I met with local pharmacies in an online round table event responding to their concerns regarding the sixty-day dispensing policies.
Many pharmacies conceded they may be forced to close their doors completely, with the average pharmacy expected to experience a 44% hit to their net profit.
And other pharmacies will no longer be able to afford overheads to continue in business.
Pharmacies in small communities will simply be unsustainable and also close, leaving their patients with zero access to any pharmacy services at all.
Sadly, many of these community pharmacies often act as a triage service, so as a result, the patients who attend these pharmacies will have no option but to go to their local hospital emergency dept.
One of the worst parts of the entire discussions was the fact that Labor is not recognising that pharmacies are small businesses too, who employ multiple staff.
And under these changes, many will be made redundant and lose their employment.
The pharmacies also predict there will be a larger nationwide medicine shortage because numerous medicines that are listed are already out of stock…
If these discussions with my local pharmacies are anything to go by, or if they have proven anything at all, it’s that these changes will only result in increased profits for large pharmaceutical suppliers, none of which aren’t located in our country.
The Prime Minister has a lot to answer for.
This government isn’t paying for these changes – our community pharmacies are, and this needs to change.
It is time the government heeded the coalition’s calls and worked with businesses to provide genuine relief for our local pharmacies.
