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Scrap outdated pharmacy rules to give patients more choice: RACGP

Royal Australian College of GPs

The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) is calling for long-overdue reform of pharmacy ownership and location rules to give patients more choice, increase competition and support better integrated healthcare.

The call follows new analysis in the Australian Financial Review highlighting how rules controlling who can own pharmacies and where they can operate restrict competition and protect existing pharmacy owners.

RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said patients should be at the centre of pharmacy policy.

“Patients need to be able to access they care they need conveniently and safely, within an integrated health system,” he said.

“Australia has a set of outdated rules that restrict where pharmacies can open and who can own them.

“These protections limit competition and patient choice. At a time when households are under pressure from the cost of living, governments should be looking closely at rules that can keep prices higher and stand in the way of better services.

“Healthcare has changed enormously, but these pharmacy rules have been allowed to remain largely untouched.

“It’s time to ask whether they still serve patients – or whether they primarily protect existing pharmacy owners from competition.”

The RACGP has long called for pharmacy ownership and location rules to be reviewed. The Grattan Institute also recently recommended removing the restrictions as part of major reforms to community pharmacy.

Dr Wright said reform could also support more integrated healthcare and make better use of pharmacists’ medicines expertise.

“Pharmacists are highly skilled health professionals and an important part of Australia’s healthcare system,” he said.

“We want to see more pharmacists working alongside GPs and other health professionals as part of coordinated teams, rather than creating more fragmented services.

“Removing outdated restrictions would open the door to more innovative models, including dispensing pharmacists working within general practice.

“That means patients could have more of their healthcare team working together, with better communication and continuity of care – that’s what integrated care looks like and that should be the goal.

“It’s a health system built around patients so they can access the care they need safely as well as conveniently..

“The RACGP is calling on Governments to seize the opportunity to modernise these laws and put patients first.”

~ENDS

About us:

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) is the voice of general practitioners (GPs) in our growing cities and throughout rural and remote Australia. For more than 60 years, we’ve supported the backbone of Australia’s health system by setting the standards for education and practice and advocating for better health and wellbeing for all Australians.

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