FEDERAL Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler has rebutted concerns surrounding controversial changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, quoting data provided by the Department of Health, said the government would cut $3.5 billion in patient care to communities across Australia over the next four years.
National president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Trent Twomey said the government needed to return that $3.5 billion to community pharmacies or risk millions of patients missing out on care and medicines.
“Put simply, (Mr Butler is) giving on one hand and taking away with another and that’s bad policy, which means bad outcomes for patients,” Mr Twomey said.
In a recent radio interview, Mr Butler refuted claims of bankrupting pharmacies, saying that taxpayers would save money from the changes, and that every dollar saved by the government would be “ploughed back into community pharmacies”.
“Let’s put that in context – pharmacies earn about $25 billion every year,” Mr Butler said.
“So over the next four years, even with no growth, they’ll earn more than $100 billion and they grew by 30 per cent over the last four years, so it’s likely to be much more than that.
“But even if it’s only $100 billion, a saving of $1.6 billion is somewhere around 1 or 1.5 per cent of their revenue.
“How on earth people have gone bankrupt in the 24 hours since I made this announcement is beyond my understanding of how bankruptcy works.”
Mr Butler said that to continue supporting pharmacy services in regional and rural communities, the government would double the value of the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance from July 1 next year for eligible pharmacies.
