The impact of the Federal Government’s initiative of 60 day dispensing for prescriptions for certain drugs from 01 Sep has the potential to “blow a huge hole in a healthcare system the rest of the world envies”, according
to RSM Australia’s national health leader Peter Saccasan.

Saccasan and RSM’s national pharmacy leader Kian Ghahramani have authored a report that looks closely at the data and the detail around the government announcement, in particular at suggested efficiency savings and
the impact of the decision on Australia’s 6000 pharmacies.

“The likely profit loss per pharmacy outlined in our report is more than 50% of net profit, and for most pharmacies a loss of over $200,000 when all impacts are considered,” Saccasan said.

“Additionally, the cutback in hours and the fact that pharmacists will likely have to charge for other services to mitigate the profit hit actually means concession card holders could be worse off under this proposal.

“Our analysis shows pharmacy staff reductions could be 5,000 employees, and it could be as many as 10,000 employees, based on the assessment that at least 5,000 pharmacies may need to cut one to two staff to go some way towards saving costs in their business,” Ghahramani said.

“Many pharmacies may have to cut more: how else do you find over $200,000 in savings? This is real money coming out of real businesses owned by real families who have put their lives (through Covid) and most likely their homes (to buy the business – just like any other business owner) on the line,” he said.

The RSM paper outlines how the speed and extent of these changes will cripple pharmacy businesses, with the Health Department itself noting “there will be little time for business owners to transition to other income sources”.

Saccasan said the Government’s insistence that they are returning efficiencies to pharmacy and that this should overcome all problems is “mischief-making at best and is contributing to an anti-pharmacy sentiment that prevails in some quarters on this issue”.

More details in today's issue of Pharmacy Daily.