The pharmacy owners’ association is once again taking a big swing.
Mere weeks after welcoming trial funding for pharmacist-led prescribing, the peak organisation for community pharmacy owners has begun a new campaign to make that federal funding – which has not actually started yet – permanent.
No one has ever accused the Pharmacy Guild of Australia of resting on its laurels.
In a video message posted to social media last week, guild president Associate Professor Trent Twomey said he had been meeting with various politicians in the lead-up to the federal budget in May.
“… We’re asking for … PBS prescribing rights, so when your patients can’t make it to see their GP, the prescriptions that you write attract the same subsidy that they get when they go and see their doctor,” he said.
“Because in 2026, there should be no wrong door for healthcare delivery in Australia.”
At time of writing, the guild had not yet published a digital copy of its pre-budget submission, so the specifics of its proposal are unknown.
Technically, the government has already committed funding to subsidise the cost of prescriptions written by pharmacists – but it has some heavy strings attached.
Mr Butler confirmed as much during his appearance at the guild-run Australasian Pharmacy Professionals conference earlier in March, where he announced that scripts written by community pharmacists for the oral contraceptive pill or for antibiotics to treat a UTI would be subsidised to the PBS rate for concession card holders.
This means that women with healthcare cards will pay just $7.70 out of pocket for any medicines they get dispensed after receiving a prescription written by a pharmacist.
Men and women without concession cards will continue paying the full cost to dispense any script written by a pharmacist.
So will women who have concession cards but have received a script from a pharmacist for anything other than the contraceptive pill or an uncomplicated UTI.
The funding has also only been given on a trial basis, is technically outside of the PBS and has not actually commenced yet.
If pharmacists were to be given full PBS access, the prescriptions they write would be subsidised for nearly every patient, rather than just female concession card holders wanting the pill or a UTI treatment.
Related
Another funding request which will raise some eyebrows is the guild’s request for time-based consultation items.
“The National Immunisation Program vaccinations in community pharmacy – what we’re looking at there is ensuring that we have time-based consultations that are reflective of the delivery of [vaccines],” pharmacy guild health economics and policy chair Anthony Tassone said.
Currently, the time that pharmacists spend with patients doing anything other than dispensing medicine is largely privately funded.
Whether or not a script is subsidised by the PBS does not directly affect the pharmacy’s income, in that it receives the same total fee regardless. But federal funding for the time spent doing consultations would directly increase pharmacy income.
Other asks from the guild included putting a freeze on the general patient copayment until the end of the decade and increasing funding for pharmacist-delivered services like opioid replacement therapy.
GPs have remained steadfastly opposed to pharmacist-led prescribing.
In a recent survey of 1900 GPs conducted by HealthEd, one in 10 respondents said they had “unsatisfactory experiences” of pharmacist-led oral contraceptive prescribing.
This included patients not being given comprehensive advice on other contraceptive options and not being given adequate education about risks.
Three in 10 GPs said they had encountered an unsatisfactory experience in relation to pharmacist prescribing of antibiotics for urinary tract infections.
These included missed diagnoses of bladder cancer, leukaemia, thrush, herpes and renal calculus.
The 2026 federal budget will be handed down on 12 May.
