THE Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia has hailed the 2017 federal budget, highlighting extra hospital funding, measures to reduce out-of-pocket PBS costs, and commitment to some hospital pharmacy initiatives.
CEO Kristin Michaels said the Society welcomed the priority placed on medicines with mandatory and tiered price reductions applying to medicines in the F1 formulary category from 01 Jul 2018, while those that move from F1 to F2 formulary and lose patent face 25% mandatory price reduction, up from 16%.
"SHPA is pleased to see the majority of these savings generated from pricing policies, $1.8b across the next five years, ...will be used to fund new medicines listings to the benefit of all Australians."
Michaels noted that with hospital pharmacists facilitating 20% of PBS expenditure, they manage a much higher proportion of generic medicines than community pharmacists, therefore playing a key role in the government achieving planned PBS savings.
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