CLAIMS that patients living in rural parts of Australia pay three times more for prescriptions under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) than those living in metropolitan areas reported in News Corp publications over the weekend displays "willful ignorance" of how the system works, a Pharmacy Guild of Australia spokesperson says.
The article published on Sun, highlighted Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt's pledge that funding announced in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) would "effectively be guaranteed", the deal - which has yet to be reached - would push medicines prices up (PD 11 Sep).
"The story in the News Corp newspaper on the weekend was another biased, unfair and error-ridden attack on community pharmacy written with an obvious prejudice against pharmacy," the Guild spokesperson told Pharmacy Daily.
"To assert as fact that 'patients in the bush pay three times more for medicine than those in the city' is an absurd lie that betrays wilful ignorance of how the PBS works.
"At the heart of the unfairness of the article is the perverse assumption that pharmacists are not entitled to remuneration for their skill, expertise and training in dispensing prescription medicines."
Responding to the story on Twitter, a number of pharmacists highlighted flaws in the reporting, with one suggesting the reporter "never lets facts get in the way of a story".
"PBS expenditure in community pharmacy fell around 10% last year from less meds attracting benefits (i.e. fees)," the pharmacist said.
"PBS spending [is] increasing only in chemotherapy - up 60% - which community pharmacy see bugger all of."
Guild Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, described the article as "lazy reporting" on Twitter.
"CPAs have guaranteed taxpayer expenditure on our medicine subsidy scheme, pharmacy owners agreeing to reforms that have produced $20 billion [in] savings over the past decade to help list life saving drugs on the PBS," he said.
"No other part of the health sector has achieved this."
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