Taren Gill, who owns a pharmacy in Victoria’s western region – in the state’s lowest socioeconomic shire – talks to AJP Podcast host Carlene McMaugh about the host of new changes about to impact the pharmacy sector and its patients…and her frustration with the Government’s lack of engagement on the changes.

It’s this lack of consultation with pharmacy about so many of the impending changes which frustrate her, she says, saying that 60-day dispensing is a “logistical, rostering, recruitment and operational nightmare” – probably for all pharmacists, but particularly those practising in regional and rural areas.

“I think it’s actually a catastrophe to give, particularly in my town, people with low health literacy, 60 days’ worth of medicine,” Gill tells McMaugh.

“In a time when we’re not trusted to give out paracetamol,” or “almost harassing questioning of S3 Panadol Osteo,” pharmacists can now give out two months’ worth of a medicine which could have fatal results if taken inappropriately.”

And she critiques the money that is supposedly being reinvested into the sector – saying that as it stands, despite her pharmacy’s ranking on the Modified Monash Model scale, it will not be eligible for the increase in the rural maintenance allowance.

But alongside the other things that have not been communicated to pharmacies is the fact that this could change as 60-day dispensing reduces her script volumes.

As for opioid dependence therapy, “It’s so poorly thought out by the Government.”

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