The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has called on the federal Government to commit to making changes to the next Community Pharmacy Agreement to save Australians money.
It follows reports of a clause in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement signed between the previous Government and the Pharmacy Guild, which obligates the federal Government to financially compensate pharmacies if the number of prescriptions dispensed nation-wide drops in any given year.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins said Australians deserve better.
"I suppose given the power of the Pharmacy Guild I shouldn't be surprised that this clause exists, yet I am still gobsmacked," she said.
"At a time when Westpac and the Pharmacy Guild have reported that spending in pharmacy has increased by 33.7% to almost $124 million in January 2023, on top of the billions paid to pharmacy through the Community Pharmacy Agreement, you would think that pharmacies shouldn't need a funding guarantee. Not to mention the extra money being funnelled in at a state and territory level for the prescribing experiments and the profits that these schemes will generate.
"Pharmacies already have protections around ownership and location laws that reduce choice and access to cheaper medicines for patients. This clause gives them a boost when sales are down because people are well. Could you imagine doctors being given a bonus payment by government when people don't need to see a doctor?
"High cost of living pressures are forcing some people to forego medicines they desperately need. So, it's galling to learn of this part of the pharmacy deal costing patients up to $180 a year on more than 140 medicines."
Dr Higgins said that public health must come first.
"Ahead of the May Budget, we have been calling on the Government to ease cost of living pressures by extending the length of prescriptions to save patients money and time and allowing a larger supply of medicines in one go to halve dispensing fees," she said.
"This isn't a new idea that has popped out of nowhere. In fact, five years ago the Pharmacy Benefits Advisory Committee, or PBAC, recommended increasing the maximum dispensed quantities of more than 140 common medications from one to two months' supply. The former Government backed away and in 2021-22 pharmacy dispensing cost taxpayers $1.67 billion. Now we know this tricky pharmacy agreement clause means the Government will have to pay up to put in place these simple changes that would save patients money.
"It's time for the Government to act decisively so that people everywhere can save valuable dollars on their scripts. People in communities across Australia are having to make impossible decisions like whether to purchase medicines, fill up the car, or buy fruit and vegetables at the supermarket; so there has never been a more important time to make these changes."
Dr Higgins said that the Government needed to stand firm against the Pharmacy's Guild opposition to these changes.
"The Pharmacy Guild will fight tooth and nail against this," she said
"This lobby group has been campaigning aggressively against such changes for years. In fact, when former Health Minister Greg Hunt considered instituting these changes he was targeted by the Pharmacy Guild ahead of the 2019 election. They donated a quarter of a million dollars to political adversaries to try and get him booted from Parliament. They will no doubt try and do something like this again but it's time for the Government to stand up to them. Our elected leaders should now be acting in the interests of the public good and doing everything possible to bring down the price of lifesaving medicines."
The RACGP recently conducted a poll of more than 1,000 GPs who answered the question: "Do you think your patients would benefit from doubling dispensing times to 60 days?". A staggering 85% said "yes".
The upcoming federal Budget is an opportunity for the Government to reduce cost of living pressures by:
- extending the length of prescriptions to save patients money and time
- allowing a larger supply of medicines in one go – a 2-month supply would significantly reduce dispensing fees, which cost taxpayers $1.67 billion in 2021-22
- investigating the benefits of removing the $1 discount rule, which caps discounts on medicines
- overhauling Australia's anti-competitive pharmacy ownership and location laws which inflate costs for patients
- making prescribing faster and easier for GPs so they have more time for patient care by streamlining the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule (PBS) prescribing system, which is unnecessarily complex.
