Guild seeks recompense
January 31, 2014
The Productivity Commission’s
Report on Government Services
2014 showed the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme (PBS) was
sustainable, the Pharmacy Guild of
Australia (PGA) has said.
PGA executive director David
Quilty said spending on the PBS
had been effectively constrained by
price disclosure, with expenditure
on pharmaceuticals as a percentage
of GDP expected to decline every
year between 2012-2013 and 2016-
2017.
The changes to price disclosure
failed to take into account the
flow-on impact on community
pharmacies, he said.
“The Pharmacy Guild will
continue to strongly put the case
for the $149 million in amelioration
of the impact of this change in
2014-15, which is less than two
per cent of the $8 billion plus in
forward estimates downgrades that
the Government has booked from
price disclosure since 2012.
“Clearly, any further cuts to the
PBS would be both unnecessary
and potentially destructive.”
Other findings from the report,
including that the hospitalisation
rate for selected vaccine
preventable, acute and chronic
conditions was 24 per 1000
people in 2011-2012, pointed
to the potential for community
pharmacies to play a larger role in
the provision of primary healthcare,
for the benefit of patients and the
cost-effectiveness of the health
system, Quilty said.
NPS MedicineWise ceo Dr
Lynn Weekes said the report
demonstrated that government
policies were making medicines
more affordable, which ensured
that most Australians had access to
the medicines they needed.
“It was pleasing to see a decline
in the use of antibiotics in 2012/13
and fewer presentations to GPs for
URTI.
“There is still a group of people
who find access to medicines
difficult for reasons including cost
and access to services (remoteness)
and future policies should
safeguard these groups while
ensuring a sustainable PBS for the
country as a whole.”
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 31 Jan 14To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 31 Jan 14