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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcouton woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Just the heads up.

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Speaker 3: This episode deals with issues surrounding mental health. If you

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Speaker 3: need someone to talk to, you can give Lifeline a

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Speaker 3: call on thirteen eleven fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Monday,

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Speaker 2: the first of May. Yet you heard that right, We're

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Speaker 2: in May. I'm Sam, I'm Zarah. The government has announced

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Speaker 2: it will allow hundreds of common medicines to be prescribed

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Speaker 2: two months at a time instead of one now. The

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Speaker 2: scheme is supposed to save both patients and the government money,

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Speaker 2: but pharmacists are concerned you will impact them and their customers.

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Speaker 4: It breaks my heart that I have to cut staff

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Speaker 4: and they can no longer provide these extra services to

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Speaker 4: the community. Is I think you'll actually cost the healthcare system?

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Speaker 2: We'll tell you what you need to know in today's

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Speaker 2: deep dive, But first the headlines. The first dedicated state

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Speaker 2: by state poll on the Voice to Parliament has shown

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Speaker 2: the yes vote is just in front overall on fifty

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Speaker 2: one percent across the nation, with thirty four percent of

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Speaker 2: Australians say they would vote no and fifteen percent still undecided.

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Speaker 2: There was also a majority of states who had a

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Speaker 2: majority yes vote. The poll of fifteen thousand Australians was

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Speaker 2: commissioned by the group behind the Ulus Statement and executed

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Speaker 2: by research organization YouGov.

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Speaker 5: National Cabinet agreed on new measures to support the Australian

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Speaker 5: healthcare system and a new financial sustainability model for the

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Speaker 5: National Disability Insurance Framework at a meeting on Friday. Healthcare

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Speaker 5: measures include improving after hours primary care and expanding the

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Speaker 5: number of nurses in the workforce. PM Anthony Albanzi called

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Speaker 5: the meeting very success and said they'd convene a special

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Speaker 5: meeting later in the year to discuss more reforms for

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Speaker 5: the healthcare system.

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Speaker 2: Police have arrested a twenty five year old Sydney man

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Speaker 2: over the alleged assault of a referee at a football

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Speaker 2: match in Sydney's Southwest. The referee remains in hospital with

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Speaker 2: a broken jaw, whilst the team supported by the perpetrator,

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Speaker 2: the green Acre Eagles, has withdrawn from the entire season

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Speaker 2: of the local competition.

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Speaker 5: And the good news A new quarterly report from the

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Speaker 5: Australian Energy Market Operator has found that renewable energy generation

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Speaker 5: increased by eleven percent on last year's levels. It also

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Speaker 5: found that gas fired energy was at its lowest levels

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Speaker 5: of generation for the January to March period since two

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Speaker 5: thousand and five.

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Speaker 2: The government's announced that over the course of a year

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Speaker 2: from September one, it will allow hundreds of common medicines

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Speaker 2: to be prescribed two months at a time instead of one,

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Speaker 2: all at half price. The scheme hasn't been welcomed by

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Speaker 2: pharmacists though, and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in particular

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Speaker 2: has been really critical.

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Speaker 5: Okay, s Sam, Before we get into what makes this

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Speaker 5: policy actually contentious, I do think that we need a

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Speaker 5: bit of background. I mean I think I do at

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Speaker 5: least a lot of this comes down to how our

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Speaker 5: drugs are priced. Can you just explain how it all works?

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Speaker 6: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the most important piece of this puzzle

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Speaker 2: is to understand the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and that's the

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Speaker 2: federal government scheme that subsidizes medicine. Now, for medicines on

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Speaker 2: the scheme, the government caps how much a patient has

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Speaker 2: to pay for a medicine and pays the gap. But

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Speaker 2: that's not it. When medicines require a prescription, the government

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Speaker 2: also subsidizes the GP consultation through medicare as well as

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Speaker 2: paying pharmacists a fee for supplying them. Now, some people,

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Speaker 2: including those on the age pension or job seeker recipients,

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Speaker 2: also get a concession discount on top of those subsidies.

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Speaker 5: Okay, so that's how the system has worked until this point.

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Speaker 5: How will it work moving forward? What was this new announcement?

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Speaker 2: So for over three hundred and twenty prescription medicines, the

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Speaker 2: government will, starting from September, allow doctors to prescribe two

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Speaker 2: months at a time if it's appropriate for the patient.

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Speaker 2: There's going to be a staggered release of what drugs

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Speaker 2: this is available for, but basically the double dose will

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Speaker 2: be available for the same price as a current single dose.

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Speaker 2: So effectively, your prescription just got a fifty percent off

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Speaker 2: sticker slapped on it. Now, for a typical patient, this

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Speaker 2: is going to mean savings of up to one hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty dollars per medicine each year, and a patient

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Speaker 2: with a concession discount will save up to forty three

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Speaker 2: dollars on top of their already subsidized prices. The government

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Speaker 2: now is going to save on GP consultations and pharmacist fees,

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Speaker 2: and it plans on using all of those savings to

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Speaker 2: invest back into community pharmacies. And remember that point. I'm

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Speaker 2: going to come back to it later, Okay, So.

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Speaker 5: I by all measures, this is really changing quite a

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Speaker 5: bit of how we do access drugs at the pharmacy.

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Speaker 5: Does there seem to be support for this change.

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Speaker 2: Well, GPS seem to be on board, and the Royal

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Speaker 2: Australian College of GPS they say the scheme will save

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Speaker 2: patients money and time. Now for the AMA, they say

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Speaker 2: it's terrific news, and they added it would take the

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Speaker 2: pressure off the health system. I guess in that sense

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Speaker 2: it means that people could have to go get scripts

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Speaker 2: from their GP once a year instead of twice. And

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Speaker 2: you've got to put that in the context of something

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Speaker 2: we've talked about a lot on this podcast is how

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Speaker 2: hard it can feel to get in to see a

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Speaker 2: GP at the moment and perhaps this scheme will free

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Speaker 2: up some space for them.

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Speaker 5: Okay, gps are on board, but I can imagine that

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Speaker 5: pharmacists would see it fairly differently. What do they say, Well.

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Speaker 2: There's been some heavy criticism from pharmacists. The Pharmacy Guild

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Speaker 2: of Australia, which is the peak body of pharmacists in

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Speaker 2: the country, criticize the proposal. They said it would guarantee

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Speaker 2: medicine shortages and create what they say was a hunger

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Speaker 2: game's standoff between patients. Now what this means is they

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Speaker 2: imagine a world where patients are getting double the medicine

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Speaker 2: that they need while other patients are getting nothing.

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Speaker 5: I think i'd add there, Sam that it wasn't just

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Speaker 5: the Pharmacy Guild that was saying that. When we uploaded

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Speaker 5: this piece to Instagram, there were a lot of comments

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Speaker 5: people who you know, with chronic illnesses or so on

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Speaker 5: that need medication saying that they were worried about this

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Speaker 5: very issue too.

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Speaker 2: That was definitely a sentiment that came through when we

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Speaker 2: put the post up on Wednesday, And on Wednesday we

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Speaker 2: also got a DM of a video of a pharmacy

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Speaker 2: owner explaining his concerns about the reform, so we thought

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Speaker 2: we'd reach out to him to hear what he had

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Speaker 2: to say.

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Speaker 6: My name's Bengaluzzo.

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Speaker 7: I'm a third generation pharmacist in the river Wood community

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Speaker 7: in Sydney. Currently, me and my dad operate to pharmacies

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Speaker 7: in Riverwood. One is a community pharmacy. One is a

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Speaker 7: age care nursing home specific pharmacy.

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Speaker 2: Give me a sense of, at a top line, what

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Speaker 2: your concerns are with the government's proposed schemes.

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Speaker 6: There's a few issues, but if I had to go,

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Speaker 6: the biggest issue is I see this as a cut

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Speaker 6: to healthcare and a cut to a lot of pharmacy jobs.

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Speaker 6: The PBS system is quite confusing. Every time someone brings

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Speaker 6: in a claimable prescription, the government pays us a dispensing

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Speaker 6: fee for dispensing that medication. The dispensing fees make up

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Speaker 6: about eighty percent of our income. If that gets cut

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Speaker 6: in half, I have to cut my staff in half,

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Speaker 6: my services and the hours I operate just to stay

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Speaker 6: open just to make rank. Pharmacies will go bankrupt from this.

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Speaker 4: I care about my stuff so much, but it's just

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Speaker 4: sad like it's either sat half or go Bankrupt's my

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Speaker 4: two options on the table.

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Speaker 2: Sucks and so what impacts do you think it will

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Speaker 2: have on customers?

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Speaker 4: Well, they're not going effect. So I have to cut

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Speaker 4: my staff in half just to make round. I do

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Speaker 4: no longer have the time to provide basic services like

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Speaker 4: blood pressure checks, blood goog coast checks, biometry, medical interaction, counseling,

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Speaker 4: the time to do that, free deliveries, so many things

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Speaker 4: that we do. It's hard for younger people to understand,

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Speaker 4: but that we do for the community that there is

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Speaker 4: no service charge. The customers come in and I said,

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Speaker 4: how are you going? And he's like, not good. I

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Speaker 4: don't know the point of life anymore. I went to

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Speaker 4: his house, sat with moved two hours. Right, Like, there's

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Speaker 4: these extra things that people coming in. We have the

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Speaker 4: staff and the capability to provide these extra services. It

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Speaker 4: breaks my heart that I have to cut staff and

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Speaker 4: they can no longer provide these extra services to the community.

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Speaker 4: But it's just one facet to this. Sixty day is

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Speaker 4: spending all the knock on effects like it's going to actually,

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Speaker 4: I think even actually cost the healthcare system because we

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Speaker 4: can't provide basic first line health. We can't do blood

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Speaker 4: pressure anymore, they have to go to GPS. GPS cost

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Speaker 4: a lot more than pharmacists to the healthcare system.

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Speaker 2: When I chadded to Ben, I could definitely sense his

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Speaker 2: distress and for a family owned business, imagine this change

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Speaker 2: could be really disruptive. Now, in saying all that, the

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Speaker 2: Federal Minister for Health and Age Care, Mark Butler, was

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Speaker 2: really keen to emphasize last week that the government will

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Speaker 2: also be investing in the community pharmacies like Ben's. Now

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Speaker 2: they say the government will save about one point two

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Speaker 2: billion dollars over the next four years and they're going

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Speaker 2: to invest that money back into the community pharmacies. The

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Speaker 2: minister also said he's keen to see pharmacies continue to

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Speaker 2: deliver the broader community services and that he values them highly.

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Speaker 2: So moving forward, we'll have to wait and see whether

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Speaker 2: this support promised by the government will be enough to

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Speaker 2: alleviate pharmacists' concerns, and it is definitely something we'll keep

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Speaker 2: an eye on.

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Speaker 3: If you need someone to talk to, you can give

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Speaker 3: Live Fline a call on thirteen eleven fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us on the Daily OS this morning.

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Speaker 2: If you learned something from today's episode, don't forget to

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Speaker 2: hit subscribe, so there's a TDA episode waiting for you

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Speaker 2: every morning. We'll be back against Sorrow until then, have

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Speaker 2: a great day, m HM.