Pharmacy Daily | New Closing the Gap pact

the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) have co-signed a Joint Position Paper seeking to improve the Closing the Gap (CTG) PBS Co-payment measure. Originally introduced in 2010, the measure reduces or removes the patient co-payment for PBS medicines for eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients living with, or at risk of, chronic disease. In the position paper, the organisations call for a CTGMedicare link to protect privacy and improve eligibility, an expansion of PBS listings to include more common medicines, inclusion of dosage administration aids and better communication for patients and health professionals around the CTG copayment. NACCHO chair Matthew Cooke (pictured above right with Guild national president George Tambassis) said it was important that everything be done to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to appropriate medicines. “Chronic diseases are one of the major reasons we still have a gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and other Australians,” Cooke said. “Improved access to medicines is critically important if we are to see generational change in the health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.” Guild national president George Tambassis said it was pleasing that more than 258,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients were accessing the more affordable PBS medicines through the measure but more could be done to ensure greater uptake. “A range of practical enhancements would assist those in remote areas to get better access to the medicines under the scheme and ensure they have access to it wherever they fill their prescriptions. “We want this vital scheme to be sufficiently flexible to improve the health of people wherever they live and wherever they travel,” he said. The joint position paper is now online at www.guild.org.au.

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