Simon Blacker | Prescription medicine changes will be disastrous

At face value, it looks like saving patients having to visit their pharmacy every month and will mean they get two lots of medicine for the price of one.

But in reality, it will be disastrous and rather than put patients first, it will disadvantage them over the long term.

It comes as no surprise that the government and anyone involved in the healthcare system acknowledges that it is under intense pressure and we have to do something about it.

We can't get into see our over-worked GPs, emergency departments are stretched and patients are suffering.

The Pharmacy Guild has long recognised that the cost of medicines has been a major problem and initiated a campaign to have the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme general co-payment reduced.

This led to the reduction from January 1 this year from $42.50 to $30, with the Pharmacy Guild pushing for this to be further reduced to $19, easing cost-of-living pressures and helping millions of Australians better afford their medicines.

However, rather than take the sensible route, the government has dusted off a 2018 proposal to allow some 124 medicines to be dispensed in double quantities - a proposal that was rejected on a number of previous occasions because it was unworkable.

This had not deterred this government which, while dusting it off, has decided to increase the number of medicines to 325, making it doubly unworkable and jeopardising the health of patients.

Let's look at the reality. The 60-day dispensing proposal certainly seems like a good idea, but it is fraught with danger for patients and communities across the country.

One of the first impacts will be a lot of community pharmacies will either close or have to cut back on their services and the hours they are open.

These are the very community pharmacies that were there for all Australians during the pandemic when other health professionals were unavailable.

The reason these pharmacies will be hit is because frankly double dispensing will slash their revenue base and they won't be viable - they won't be able to afford to continue to provide what they do today.

At present, community pharmacies are the most accessible health professionals, often open late and on weekends.

There is no doubt most pharmacies that remain in business will have to reduce their opening hours meaning that parents wanting access to late night medicines for their children or families will miss out because pharmacies will be forced to scale back their opening hours.

Is this what we really want? Pharmacists don't want to put their patients at risk, but will be forced to do so.

Patients across all areas will be affected, but none more so than our aged population who depend on pharmacies to provide medication services including vital dose administration aids which ensure our loved ones are getting the right medicines, in the right doses at the right times.

These are often an unseen service provided by pharmacies but they come at a cost.

This proposal will also put more pressure on emergency departments because people will need to go somewhere when their pharmacy is closed.

Another major concern is that the already dire situation of medicine shortages which have been exacerbated by the pandemic will simply worsen.

Already more than 400 medicines are listed on the government's own website as being in short supply or out of stock, with others pending.

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Suddenly forcing pharmacists to give patients twice the amount of a medicine that is already in short supply is a policy that beggars belief. How will a patient feel when they are told there is no more of their medicine because the patient at the counter a few minutes before them got the last two boxes.

These shortages will likely last months or years, making it that much harder to get the medicines people need.

One of the reasons this policy was not implemented in the past was the fear of hoarding and to be frank, nothing has changed. In fact the fears that many people felt during the pandemic have only increased the likelihood of hoarding, meaning there will be more medicines in the house, often causing confusion for the elderly and dangers for curious children.

Interestingly, the government has not been able to guarantee that either patients or community pharmacies won't be worse of as a result of this policy, and you can be sure that if such a guarantee was possible, it would be shouted from the rooftops,

If Labor wants to help Australians with the cost of medicines, they should make medicines cheaper by lowering the PBS co-payment from $30 to $19 dollars. That will make everyone's medicines cheaper, without threatening access to medicines, and ensure the world-class community pharmacy system we all enjoy remains intact.