Fears 60-day medicine scheme could hurt pharmacies surrounding Albury-Wodonga

As part of its plan to reduce cost-of-living pressures, the federal government recently announced it would halve the number of scripts - and, by extension, co-payments - required for some drugs by allowing patients to collect 60 days' supply of medicines at a time, doubling the current 30-day maximum.

But pharmacists across the region have said this will only leave patients, especially low economic patients such as pension card holders, worse off.

"We will have no choice but to charge higher fees for services we would normally offer for free or a discounted rate," Pharmacist and owner of Terry White Chemist Lavington Square Jeff Nelson said.

"Our job as a pharmacist is to help people but if these changes come into play, it's going to be really difficult to do just that."

Mr Nelson has owned the Lavington store for the past 20 years. He said it's "always busy" which had been great for the business, but if the federal government reverses the way medicines are dispensed he will have no option but to "cut hours, or staff and services".

He said it was "awful" that the government went ahead with the idea without considering the repercussions.

Owner of several pharmacies in the region Ben Brndusic said it was a problem that the government had provided little detail with how the new system would work.

"They don't want to sit down and talk," he said.

"What we want at the moment is to sit down with all the stakeholders and work out an outcome that's good for the government and allows the profession to continue to function as it has for the last however many years."

Mr Brndusic said the scheme would "hurt everybody".

"I know some pharmacies around here that will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said. "That's going to affect jobs, it's going to affect service delivery, it's going to affect access to not just medicines, but advice too."

Another pharmacist, who didn't want to be named, said the changes would compromise access to health services, mainly if pharmacies shut down because of the drop in sales.

"It will greatly impact business," she said. "We rely on the government dispensing fee we get for every prescription. I don't know how we will cope with the shortage of sales when we have to cut back on expenses."

Farrer MP Sussan Ley said she had met and heard from a number of pharmacists across the region who are "genuinely 'scared' at the potential impacts of this Labor policy."

"The Coalition has been calling on the government to provide a strong guarantee that this change will not harm the viability of community pharmacies," Ms Ley said.

The change was recommended by experts at an independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in 2018.

The changes from September will be implemented in the 2023-24 federal budget.

More than 600 pharmacies and 20,000 jobs might be at risk if the federal government follows through with plans to change rules around medicine dispensing.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is warning of job losses following the release of an independent report analysing the government's plan to allow up to six million people to buy two months' worth of subsidised medicines with a single prescription.

The policy would apply to more than 300 medicines including treatments for conditions such as heart disease, cholesterol and Crohn's disease.

The report by economist Henry Ergas found community pharmacies could lose more than $4.5 billion over four years under the changes.

Communities with a high proportion of vulnerable residents - including the elderly, Indigenous people and Australians living with chronic health conditions - could be disproportionately impacted with regional and rural pharmacies the first to close, the report stated.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey called on the government to go back to the drawing board.

"Once we've lost this important piece of healthcare infrastructure, we cannot ever get it back," Mr Twomey said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese threw his support behind Australians who require ongoing medicines.

"The logic that someone who has a permanent condition, who will need a particular drug for the rest of their lives ... who can get a script for 60 days rather than 30 days, should pay twice as much, should go twice as often to the doctor, is quite frankly absurd," he told parliament.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government was committed to keeping the price of medicines low amid a cost of living crisis.

"Our number one concern are Australians who we think are paying more than they need to for their medicines," Mr Jones said. "They're paying too much for those medicines at the moment."

The changes by the government have the backing of consumer, health and doctor organisations including the peak body representing general practitioners, the Heart Foundation, Australian Medical Alliance and Consumer Health Forum of Australia.

Mr Jones said the savings made through the measure will be reinvested back into pharmacies.

But Mr Twomey said the reinvestment would not make up for the thousands of dollars lost by pharmacies.

Mr Ergas in his report recommended the government suspend the implementation of the policy until a review could be undertaken to fully understand the impact the changes would have on pharmacies.

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