|
Pharmagoss - By Rollo Manning
* Choice Expose PBS Pricing Competition
* Give Aboriginal health a look for future opportunity
* The year that was….
NAPSA Congress, Coles-Myer take over Pharmacy Direct , Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement, Section 100 arrangements for Aboriginal people, Robotic dispensing machines, The battle going on between the Pharmacy Guild and the entrepreneurs, Acceptance of the principle of “clinical pharmacies”
* Quote of the Month
______________________________________________________________________________
Choice Expose PBS Pricing Competition
The point about the “Choice” criticism of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme pricing is raising the questions of equity and transparency.
Equity because if Australians are to benefit from low generic pricing there should be some benefit to them either as taxpayers or consumers. At present, and for the past 20 years, the only beneficiary is the pharmacists who own businesses (and nobody else can own the business).
Transparency - because there are four points where this should have been corrected and has not.
 They are:
- The claim by the Pharmacy Guild in the fight against Woolworths that prices are fixed and Woolworths could not save the consumer $500 million a year because of this – WRONG.
- The fact that not all consumers would want a Safety Net recording fee charged to them but are not given the choice.
- The fact that the $3.45 additional fee should be explained by the dispensing pharmacy as an additional fee that is not brought on by the Government – a Fourth Agreement commitment.
- The cosy arrangement that exists between generic suppliers and pharmacies to bring the price down to a rock bottom level to get the goods in to store. This equates to the price a manufacturer has to pay to get the shelf space at a supermarket and yet the public are continually being reminded by the Pharmacy Guild that prescription medicines are NOT ORDINARY ITEMS OF COMMERCE.
The Choice article has suggested that consumers shop around. More importantly pharmacy owners must realize that “you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time”.
The party is over and life goes on – in what form the profession must decide. Indications are that there is a strong view that pharmacies should return to the clinical role and if this is done satisfaction will be restored as consumers see that pharmacy is a profession that cares for health outcomes and not just business opportunities.
Give Aboriginal health a look for future opportunity
The recent changes to generic pricing on the PBS will make a number of pharmacies wonder more where there future lies.
Aboriginal Health Services are continually in need of the attention of a pharmacist – be they in a remote location or an urban area. Prescriptions are written, handed to patients but never known if they are filled. Considering the health status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people it is a continual wonder why the spending on PBS per capita is only one third that of mainstream Australians.
The changes this year to the relocation rules of the Australian Community Pharmacy Authority where pharmacies can relocate into medical centres bring the AHSs into the scope of possibility.
Pharmacists choosing this option will find a new world of endeavor open to them and an opportunity to really make a difference in an area of primary health care desperately needing anupgrade in pharmaceutical care.
Any pharmacist interested could contact this columnist at RWM Consultancy on 08 89422101 or drop an email to info@rollomanning.com
The year that was….
For Pharmgoss the year started with a visit to Tasmania and the NAPSA Congress – a great event and having lost nothing from the intervening 25 years since this scribe last attended one. Just a few years with no NAPSA but now all is fixed and back to normal.
A Guild National Councillor set the cat among the pigeons by saying there were a lot of small pharmacies the government wanted to shut down.
This caused something of a panic, albeit that later in the year the first step was taken to force this by the recently announced reduction in the price of generics.
Pity help the same pharmacies if the co-payment to consumers is ever reduced as this will reduce the margins even further with less sales to charge the extra fees on as described by Choice magazine in November.
 What an April Fools Day – Coles-Myer take over Pharmacy Direct by an astute piece of corporate thinking that slipped in under the noses of industry watchers and gobbled up an ancient company structure that had eluded the watch of the protectionist lobby.
It seems though as if the same protectionist lobby is quite satisfied that supermarket pharmacies should thrive and prosper.
The recent growth of Chemist Warehouse/e-pharmacy outlets and Priceline Pharmacies (sponsored by API) shows that this is an acceptable trend with Pharmacy Boards showing no signs of rebuke for any conduct that could be construed as “unprofessional”.
The “who owns this pharmacy?” competition gets harder as the banners go up announcing another supermarket pharmacy on the horizon.
This Mr. Priceline chap seems to be able to own plenty the same as the company behind Chemist Warehouse – and yet the Aboriginal Medical Service down the road cannot, even though it boasts as being “community controlled”.
Crazy days.
The signs of money coming from the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement are still a dim light on the horizon as potential researchers spend more time planning projects than actually doing them.
It is no wonder change happens so slowly with the 4CPA now 18 months gone and none of the $500 million in sight.
One sign is that some of the professional development money could be spent on paying the co-payment for urban living Aboriginal and Islander people.
Pity the Government did not meet this cost from another more welfare orientated bucket of money rather that pinching it from pharmacist professional development funds.
The cause is worth it but the source not.
The Section 100 arrangements for Aboriginal people living in remote places must be the most historic piece of action that has never been updated from its conception in 1999.
Still the same handling fee of $1.14, 10% mark up and no Government response to a “evaluation” report now two years old and on top of this another report from the originators of the plan – Urbis Keys Young.
It is as if there is a surplus of money so let’s have another report!
Robotic dispensing machines received a high profile lift with entrepreneur Michael Boyd entering the market as the apparently sole machine in Australia.
Bluepoint by ExpressRx has hit the trial stage and its progress being watched with interest. Needless to say the protectionist lobby is not in favor of these things – not just because it may disrupt the “status quo” but because it could be the first step towards ATMs in the main street taking business away from the supermarket style pharmacy in the shopping centre.
It has been an exciting year with a number of twists and turns with the most exciting being the battle going on between the Pharmacy Guild and the entrepreneurs.
From the viewpoint of this columnist the most encouraging was acceptance of the principle of “clinical pharmacies” espoused at a PSA sponsored seminar in early November in Wagga Wagga at the Charles Sturt University.
There are people out there that want change and the outcomes of the Guild Jubilee Conference of 1978 should be revisited because nothing much has changed in the intervening years.
The clinically orientated pharmacy is the one to develop – as important now as it was in 1978.
You can access this presentation by clicking here and please comment back to the author if you support or oppose the notions in it.
All the best for the festive season and may 2007 see the blossoming of the “clinical” pharmacy destined to be the support mechanism to make the PBS a really worthwhile Government program with built in evaluation and forward planning at the consumer end of the chain.
Quote of the Month:
"If you are not out there doing it no one will know what you can do."
Rollo Manning – Wagga – 5 November 2006
Cheers, and a Merry Christmas
Comments to info@rollomanning.com
|
