He’s confident that in the long term, 60-day dispensing will not be catastrophic, but potentially result in a “positive outcome” for the community pharmacy network and patients.

But Bonner said that with only two and a half months to go until the first tranche of medicines become subject to double dispensing, now is the time for aged care facilities and pharmacists to ascertain who may benefit from it – which, when it comes to nursing home residents, will be a small minority – and whether 60-day dispensing is right for them.

Teething problems will include how facilities, particularly in rural and regional areas, will manage fallout from the community sector – particularly given changes to the residential onsite pharmacist initiative.

“The onsite pharmacist funding redirection of that $350m to the community pharmacy network did come as a very disappointing announcement for the care providers – they were looking forward to having that funding, to be able to have the autonomy over the services they receive and the pharmacists they engage,” Bonner said.

“They’re now very concerned, and getting communication from their supply pharmacies around the impact that the 60-day dispensing will have on their service.”

With 70% of aged care providers operating at a loss, they won’t have the capacity to absorb the extra financial load if they are charged more for services such as dose administration aid packing, Bonner warned.

And he says that for the community sector, “The best approach to get the Government and the stakeholders to listen at this point is focus more on the impact to the consumer and the patients, how this is going to affect them.”

Go here for the full list of active AJP podcasts. These can also be accessed via Apple Podcasts and Spotify