Coles and Woolworths blocked from selling prescription medication in a win for pharmacists

MARCH 14, 2014
Would you get a vaccination from your pharmacist? The Australian Medical Association is against the idea.
HEALTH Minister Peter Dutton is considering paying chemists to provide more health services such as vaccinations.
And he has ruled out allowing Coles and Woolworths to run pharmacies in supermarkets in a win for pharmacy owners fighting to retain their monopoly businesses.
The minister is understood to be watching with interest the outcomes of a launch of a pharmacist vaccination trial in Queensland.
The payment for extra services could form part of the next $15 billion dollar five-year pharmacy agreement which sets the rates the government pays chemists to dispense prescriptions under the nation’s medicine subsidy scheme.
“I am open to discussions about an agreement which pays for tangible services and interventions that will provide better patient outcomes,” Mr Dutton told the Australian Pharmacy Professional Conference on the Gold Coast on Tuesday.
“Your workforce is professional and tertiary-trained with significant professional development and postgraduate studies making pharmacists qualified and trusted in the delivery of patient care.”
News Corp Australia revealed earlier this year that chemists had asked Mr Dutton for a $50 government payment to perform health checks on their customers.
They wanted to be paid to measure their customers weight, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.
The attempt by pharmacists to expand the services they provide has raised the ire of the Australian Medical Association.
AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton says a weekend training program on vaccination can’t teach chemists how to recognise an anaphylactic reaction to a vaccine and manage it before it becomes dangerous.
He also questions whether a pharmacist’s indemnity insurance would cover any problems with vaccination.
“Pharmacists should not pretend to provide medical care, that’s what doctors do,” he said.
Many pharmacists are struggling after huge profits they were making on generic medicines were pared back when the government cut the price it paid to reflect market rates.”
The minister knocked back calls by some cash-strapped chemists for government subsidies for rent and staff.
Like SPC and Holden chemists have to manage their own business risks, he told the conference.
“The Government can’t regulate rents nor can Government underwrite financing arrangements with banks, or pay a subsidy for staff,” he told the conference.
“Not because we are anti-business. Indeed the complete opposite — because we want business, including your sector, to grow and be profitable in their own right.”
Pharmacy businesses are protected by a raft of location and rules that allow them to have a monopoly on dispensing subsidised prescription drugs.
These rules have thwarted attempts by the major supermarkets to increase competition and enter the pharmacy market and Mr Dutton committed to continue that situation.
“I can, though, recommit to our election commitment that the Coalition will not allow the retail giants into pharmacy,” Mr Dutton told the conference on Thursday.

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