Guild fires back on location
July 31, 2014
PHARMACY Guild of Australia national president George
Tambassis has fired back at
Professor Philip Clarke’s article in
the Australian Financial Review
regarding pharmacy location rules.
Clarke, writing in the AFR
yesterday, labelled the location
rules as “even more perniciously
anti-competitive” than the
ownership rules, saying they
denied many pharmacy graduates
the opportunity to set up their
own business and created “local
monopolies.”
“Consumers need to walk a
considerable distance just to
compare prices in different
pharmacies.”
Clarke said it was hard to see
how the rules benefited consumer
access, and asked why they weren’t
extended to other small businesses,
such as restaurants.
In a reply sent to the AFR and
other media, Tambassis said the
location rules, far from being
‘perniciously anti-competitive’,
provided a strong public policy
benefit of ensuring there was
fair and equitable access to the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Schemesubsidised
medicines delivered
through an accessible pharmacy
network.
“They are designed to ensure
that wherever there is a genuine
community need for a community
pharmacy, a pharmacy can be
established.”
The rules prevented clustering
of pharmacies that could deprive
patients in suburbs and towns of
“timely and convenient” access
to a local pharmacy providing PBS
medicines and helped to manage
the costs of the PBS, he said.
Pharmacy numbers had seen a
7% increase in the last five years,
contrary to Clarke’s assertions, he
said.
Comparing the distribution of
pharmacies with that of restaurants
was “frankly, lame”, he said.
“PBS medicines are not ordinary
items of commerce.
“It may not matter if an elderly
infirm person does not have
convenient access to fine dining,
but it would matter if market forces
put their PBS medicines out of
reach.”
To read Clarke’s piece, CLICK
HERE.
At time of writing, Tambassis’
reply had not yet been published.
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