After an interesting chat with the chemist at Lake Haven about the new prescription regime being introduced by the Federal Government in September, I felt compelled to put something in writing to let others know what is happening.
What they’re not talking about is how it will take longer to reach the safety net threshold, if at all.
Currently, I will reach my limit by the end of May which means I get free scripts for the rest of the year.
The chemist says almost no-one will achieve free scripts under the new rules.
So, they’re giving with one hand while taking with the other.
At present, the chemist buys the medicines first and is reimbursed by the government two months later.
So, effectively, he is having to keep more medicines in stock (there is already a supply chain problem) and in order to stay financially viable, he will have to put staff off because he can’t afford to keep them because he’s had to buy twice as much stock.
I believe it will be worse in regional and rural areas where there is likely to be only one chemist in town.
Also, if a patient has now only to visit the pharmacist half as much, he/she is missing out on vital socialisation with said chemist who now, by the way, is taking up the slack from the GP.
Also, this only applies to just over 300 common medications.
There could be a lot of waste as well.
For instance, what if your specialist or GP changes the dosage of a particular medication and you have just had the script filled and received 60 days’ supply which now goes to waste?
Changing dosage happens to me all the time.
Besides, we generally get six months’ supply anyway so it means twice a year you have to ask the doctor for a new script.
Surely that’s not too onerous?
Did you know that GPs can legally write you a script with 11 repeats but they choose not to because that would mean you would only visit them once a year.
Annoy Mark Butler (Federal Health Minister) and your local Federal MP (particularly if you’re in the Dobell Electorate as Emma McBride is Parliamentary Secretary to Mr Butler and a former pharmacist) and if you’re in the Robertson Electorate, the MP is Dr Gordon Reid, who is a GP.
Point out the error of their ways.
Email, Apr 30
Virginia Bowditch, San Remo
I feel that many of the issues raised by Virginia Bowditch are based on false assumptions on how the prescription rule changes will affect either patients or pharmacists.
Yes, it will take longer to reach the safety net threshold, but that’s because she will be spending only half the money on prescriptions in the first place. The threshold itself has not changed.
The pharmacist will not have to buy more stock, because patients will be getting exactly the same total quantities of medication, but dispensed every 2 months instead of every month.
She will still have to visit her doctor for a new script every 6 months, if that is her current arrangement. It’s still up to the doctor to nominate how much of each prescription she can have on each refill, and the doctor can still choose a 30-day supply, or now a 60-day supply.
Nothing changed there.
If her doctor can now issue a script with 11 repeats, that’s up to the doctor and is unaffected by the supply change if the doctor continues to specifiy a 30-day supply on each refill. Again, no change.
She will still only get 6 months supply, but will be able to pick it up on 3 2-monthly visits to the pharmacy instead of 6 1-monthly visits.
The only material impact is the probable loss of foot traffic to the pharmacy and therefore less potential for the pharmacy to sell other goods and services to the customer, but even that is not a given.
Her reaction to the rule changes is illogical, and appears to be based on resistance to any change rather than on any objective analysis.
I was only repeating what the chemist told me.