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The question of who should own a pharmacy is one that is always in the news.
The discussion arises whenever a big player in retail utters a mention of wanting a slice of the pharmacy market.
Rollo Manning reviews the most recent utterance by Woolworth's.
From B & T Weekly edition 17th May 2003

Full story..........................................................

On May 11th an ally in the voice of Alan Jones (Radio 2GB in Sydney)

Mr Jones went on to say (quote):

I'm not sure that is the kind of commercial world we want to endure.
There is now outrage at plans that Woolworths will open stand-alone pharmacies within the supermarkets.
And the Pharmacy Guild of Australia says the plan hasn't worked overseas and it won't work here.
And I see a spokesperson for the Pharmacy Guild who says internal surveys of pharmacists in supermarkets in overseas countries show that the services provided were very poor, and although prices initially fell, as soon as the supermarkets gained control, they jacked up prices.
Well, how true is that.
How does the little green grocer compete with Woolworths or the butcher, or the bread shop?
And, of course, what you find these large outfits do is they undercut the little fella until such time as he has to close.
And as soon as he's closed, as with the pharmacies, jack up the prices.
Under the New South Wales Pharmacy Act, the ownership and control of pharmacies is restricted to registered pharmacists.
And so it should be.
And the Australian Community Pharmacy Agreement restricts where pharmacies can be located.
And so it should.
Woolworths has initiated the first stage of its plan by introducing specific health and beauty concepts in its Macquarie and Kellyville stores.
And the Woolworths Chief Executive, Roger Corbett says there is opportunity in the industry to reduce prices and save customers money.
And Roger Corbett has been lobbying government to change the legislation for more than 15 years.
Well, call me old fashioned.
But I'm completely opposed to this notion where the big devour the small.
The vulture mentality of retail life is not something consistent with the way we want to go about our business.
And at the end of the day, this means that every newsagent and every chemist shop, every butcher, every baker and every green grocer will be found in either Woolworths or Coles.
Is that the kind of shopping world we want?
(Unquote)

The appointment of Graeme Samuels to succeed Alan Fells as head of the ACCC will sound alarm bells in some quarters as he (Samuels) is known to be a firm supporter of National Competition policy and he presided over the Council during the time of the review by Warwick Wilkinson over pharmacy regulation.

The report of the "Wilkinson Review" said that:

"The PBS location restrictions have been operating, with modifications, since 1990. In that time, there have been considerable changes in the modes of delivery for primary health care services, including pharmacy.

By effectively standing still at the beginning of the decade, the current restrictions (on location of Approval Numbers) arguably have not served the community well. They reflect, and to an extent have locked in, the pharmacy and health care outlook of the early 1990s, rather than looking ahead to needs of the decade ahead.

A collateral cost of maintaining both the new and relocated pharmacy criteria is that they frustrate positive developments in pharmacy service planning and provision. They do not help to keep the shape of the community pharmacy industry abreast of current and likely future trends in consumer need and demand for pharmacy services, including:

* The ongoing popularity with consumers of "one-stop" shop medical centres containing a range of health care professionals under one roof,

* The development and expansion of care and multi-campus aged care nursing home and hostel facilities, which lend themselves to either on-site dispensaries or the contracting in of specialist pharmacy services not always provided readily by orthodox community pharmacies' ; and

* Specialist health care facilities such as Aboriginal Medical Services, which could also sustain their own dispensary facilities."

As the negotiations take place towards a Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement between community pharmacy and the Commonwealth Government all pharmacists should embrace themselves for another challenge to the NCP review ruling that only pharmacists should own pharmacies.

See also, Neil Johnston's Article