Pharmacy Daily | $90,000 hit per pharmacy

Pharmacies will have no choice but to reduce staff in order to survive if the government does not address the impact of price disclosure, according to an analysis by the Pharmacy Guild’s National Director of Health Economics, Stephen Armstrong. Writing in a special edition of the Guild’s Forefront newsletter yesterday, Armstong said that the regime is set to take $90,000 off the bottom line of the average community pharmacy in 2014-15. “Any business, large or small, needs to maintain profits at levels required to meet financial commitments,” he said. “To survive through 2014, unless there is appropriate government intervention, owners will have little alternative but to shed jobs,” Armstrong added. The comments were based on a conservative analysis of just 35 drugs - not including any injectables or combination medications. The situation is potentially even worse, with the PBS price reductions also hitting community pharmacies in terms of reduced generic trading terms - which have been “the only thing filling the gap caused by a 10% real reduction in remuneration per prescription over recent years,” Armstrong said. The special Forefront also includes commentary on the issue from Guild President Kos Sclavos and PSA National President Grant Kardachi, with the peak bodies uniting to address the crisis (PD yesterday). They have encouraged every stakeholder to act now and contact political candidates, with Sclavos saying “we must act to avert this crisis for pharmacy”. He said it’s worth reminding the politicians that there will be about 30 million pharmacy visits during the election campaign - or about 200,000 per Federal electorate.

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