I read your correspondent’s letter (Change in prescriptions not that great, CCN 388) with interest.
Like any other union, the Pharmacy Guild will always place its own members’ interests ahead of the public, and this is no exception.
Have we already forgotten that the Guild wanted the right to administer the COVID and influenza vaccines, and subsequently charge for a service which is provided for free at a health clinic?
Also, that they wanted to feather their own nests by wanting to prescribe medicines as well as dispense them, which is a clear conflict of interest?
Furthermore, my GP happily accepts prescriptions that are no longer required, as they are then sent to Africa where they are supplied to people who otherwise cannot afford them; the same goes for expired drugs, as they are still efficacious.
Finally, my GP would be glad to write longer-term scripts, as that way he can serve more patients; incidentally many of my own scripts do not have any repeats at all, and this is at the behest of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, not the GPs themselves.
In short, I would not accept at face value anything that the Guild says but will check with my own GP, and I would suggest that your correspondent does the same.
It is also interesting that the Guild seems to be conducting an email campaign; I have no idea what they are saying as my mail server rejected it as being spam, but I certainly did not give them permission to use my email address in this manner.
Email, May 7
Dave Horsfall, North Gosford