A local pharmacist says the federal government’s latest policy reform won’t benefit those in need, and ultimately drive up prices for dependent customers.
But the government says that’s just a scare campaign used by big pharmaceutical lobbyists.
Grand Plaza Pharmacy pharamacist Damian Prineas has a sign outside his store, addressed to federal treasurer Jim Chalmers, reading “60 day supply saves the rich money”.
Mr Prineas, a pharmacist of more than 35 years, said the “misguided” policy would see a reduction in government funding for pharmacies under the pharmaceutical benefits scheme.
He said the funding helped pharmacies like his to provide bespoke services to vulnerable customers, such as medicine packages and delivery to people who “can’t organise their medicine”.
“Currently I do packaging for free and I deliver for free, but those costs will go up,” he said.
Mr Prineas said he did an average of 30 deliveries a week and 130 packages a fortnight.
“These customers are the ones that are going to bear the brunt of the increases in other costs,” he said.
But a spokesperson for the federal minister for health, Mark Butler, said the government hadn’t and wouldn’t cut any funding that goes towards those services.
“The fact is the pharmacy lobby group is deliberately misleading regional and rural consumers with a dishonest scare campaign,” the spokesperson said.
“Every single dollar saved by the government will go back into pharmacy services, so pharmacists can continue to play an even more central role in the healthcare of Australians.”
The government’s policy reform will allow people to buy two months’ worth of certain medications for the price of a one-month prescription, including asthma, diabetes and blood-pressure medicines.
“But the real person that’s going to benefit from that the most is somebody that for example isn’t on the pension,” Mr Prineas said.
He said he will lose $90,000 a year in funding, with some larger pharmacies predicting losses of up to $150,000 a year.
The Department of Health spokesperson said these were “misleading” calculations that came from incorrect figures.
“This represents $90,000 that’s not going to be available to my pharmacy to produce and do the services that it does,” Mr Prineas said.
“I’m going to have to try and find that money in other ways, and the only way to do that is by putting up prices in other areas.”
The federal minister for health, Mark Butler, said “every dollar that the commonwealth will save from this measure will be reinvested back into new spending on community pharmacy programs”.
But Mr Prineas disagreed.
The spokesperson for Mr Butler said pharmacists would be getting more for dispensing PBS medication – over $41,000 extra per year for the average metropolitan pharmacy – because government payments received a seven per cent indexation boost that started on 1 July.
“The funding doesn’t go towards paying owners massive incomes,” Mr Prineas said.
“It actually goes towards running those businesses so they can provide services.”
Mr Prineas said his customers might have to pay $10 per week for packaging, and another $10 for delivery.
