The Labor government’s 60-day prescription plan contains “factual inaccuracies” after it was 'cooked up by the bureaucrats' without consultation, says Trent Twomey.
Health Minister Mark Butler announced the initiative in April as part of his major pharmacy reform included in the May federal budget.
The National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Trent Twomey said Labor failed to consult frontline health workers on its 60-day prescription plan. Picture: Allen Mechen “And here we are with a policy that’s been cooked up by the bureaucrats in Canberra with no consultation with frontline health care professionals that is cutting community pharmacies to fund cheaper medicine.”
He explained part of the figure was from savings to patients, while the remaining were billion-dollar cuts to the pharmacies itself. “No GPs open after work and before school, no GPs are open on a Sunday, so all of those people now are going to have to go to an emergency department because it’s going to be the only thing open.”
“There’s a $158,000 cut, and they are reinvesting a ripper $3,000 per pharmacy. That’s not enough to save jobs, that’s not enough to save trading hours on Sundays and on weekends and at night."
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