The decision to implement double dispensing for select medications has continued to prove highly emotive, even after tears from the Pharmacy Guild President.
Following that now infamous press conference on 26 April, where the president said that Health Minister Mark Butler and his government did not “give a shit” about the implications for pharmacies, especially in regional areas, the Guild has ramped up opposition to the budget proposal.
Professor Trent Twomey said on 2 May 2023 that economic modelling by the Guild, using data provided by the Department of Health, showed that the policy could cut $3.5 billion in patient care to communities around Australia over the next four years.
“This $3.5 billion cut is made up of a $1.2 billion saving to the Budget in Government dispensing fees, with community pharmacies expected to pay for a further $2.3 billion in patient fees for the policy,” President Twomey explained.
“The Government’s approach will also be disastrous for the aged care sector, resulting in a significant cut in medicine dispensing services to hundreds of aged care residents.
“And the cut will put more pressure on emergency departments because people will need to go somewhere else when their pharmacy is closed because of reduced operating hours.”
Medicineshortages.com.au, a platform authorised by Suzanne Greenwood on behalf of the Pharmacy Guild, has sent 4,783 letters to local MPs and garnered nearly 39,000 signatures on its petition to address the current shortages of many prescription medications.
“We believe that access to vital medicines should be a right, not a privilege. Essential medicine is running out and may no longer be available in your pharmacy,” the petition site states.
“400 drugs are on the critical shortage list, and 20% of these will be out of stock now that dispensing limits have been increased by the government.
“With these 400 medicines in short supply, the Federal Government will make medicines shortages worse via the implementation of 60-day dispensing.”
Professor Twomey has since clarified the number of medicines in short supply, noting that publicly available information from the TGA showed “there are 158 medicines that are either in shortage or anticipated shortage when the policy begins.”
“These include Trulicity and Ozempic for diabetes, Cadivast, Acetec Teveten for blood pressure, Simpral for Parkinsons and Zoloft for depression,” he said.
“Double of nothing is still nothing and many patients will not get the medicine they need.”
Many regional pharmacies have already uploaded the petition to their websites and regional newspapers across the country have featured articles from their local pharmacist speaking out against the changes.
Professor Twomey said the Government was quick to say their policy copied the same approach overseas in the UK, New Zealand and Wales but had not outlined the facts.
“In Wales, the Government guaranteed the viability of community pharmacies to stop mass closures and we would like the same guarantee from our Federal Government.”
However, sympathy from the public may soon evaporate thanks to a new initiative that the Pharmacy Guild has employed in their campaign against 60-day prescriptions – automated calls and text messages warning customers who have recently visited their local pharmacy that their medications may be at risk of running out.
The robo-call scheme has been lambasted by many recipients as intrusive and causing needless anxiety, with the ABC News reporting on 9 May 2023 that dozens of people had contacted the organisation about the campaign.
Minister Butler labelled the actions taken by the Pharmacy Guild as “dishonest and pretty cynical” at a press conference in Adelaide on 5 May 2023.
“I’d advise people to take advice not from the pharmacy lobby, but from the medicine’s authority themselves, who are telling me that of the list of 320 odd medicines which will be available for 60-day dispensing… only seven of them are currently experiencing a shortage without some alternative brand or formulation available to them.
“Now from time to time there will be brand shortages, these will not be impacted by 60-day dispensing, because as everyone who thinks about this for more than three or four minutes knows, this change will not impact at all the number of tablets being prescribed over a given period.
“It will simply mean that people can get two packs over two months instead of one pack every single month.
“So, I really, really do caution the pharmacy lobby against this frankly dishonest and pretty cynical scare campaign that they’re running and get behind a program that is going to halve the cost of medicines for 6 million Australians with chronic disease, many of them who are on low and fixed incomes.”