Ladies and Gentlemen, good morning and welcome to APP2024.
As always, it gives me great joy to open APP, the largest annual gathering of the community pharmacy family.
Community pharmacists have descended here with our valued pharmacy assistants, students, suppliers, business partners to shake on the deals that will set up their pharmacies for the next 12 months.
I’d like to specially acknowledge the Guild’s Past Presidents, Kos Sclavos and George Tambassis, and Des Bailey, the President of the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand.
And I extend a warm welcome to all our distinguished guests and Life Members.
I acknowledge the Yugambeh [YOO-gum-BERR] people as the traditional custodians of the land and waterways upon which we gather for the next four days.
Closing the healthcare gap is a priority of community pharmacies in their interactions with First Nations patients across the country.
So too is it a priority for your Guild.
Your Guild will always support practical measures that close the healthcare gap, and improve the lives of First Nations peoples.
We are proud of the CTG initiatives we funded in the 7th Community Pharmacy Agreement, and will secure adequate funding for these initiatives over the next five years.
I extend the Guild’s appreciation to our friends in the QLD Government for their ongoing support of this conference on the Gold Coast, where it is beautiful one day, and perfect the next.
The QLD Labor Government values how our network of community pharmacies delivers accessible, affordable and dependable primary healthcare for patients right across the sunshine state.
I assure you that under the QLD Labor Government, the scope of practice and the recognition of community pharmacists is truly years ahead.
Your Guild is proud to partner with the QLD Labor Government to keep Queenslanders healthier … to unclog General Practices … to reduce unnecessary Emergency Department presentations … and to present diversified growth opportunities for community pharmacies.
Humbly, we look forward to the rest of the country catching up with our progressive, ambitious agenda.
Dependable
Your Guild is here for you.
And we know that you’re there for your patients.
Patients know they can depend on their community pharmacy.
Depend on their pharmacy for advice and services; being there when patients need the medicines and healthcare that pharmacies offer.
As a nation, we take for granted just how dependable community pharmacies are.
It often takes exceptional circumstances to highlight this defining trait of our profession.
Unfortunately, over the past few years there has been no shortage of exceptional circumstances.
These events have put the spotlight on how community pharmacies are dependable and there when patients need them.
During drought, pharmacies help their communities by developing payment options for those facing tough times.
During bushfires community pharmacies step up, delivering by boats to get much-needed medicines to patients cut off by flames.
We dispense without payment because payment systems are blacked out.
We fill prescriptions by lantern or torch light when power is cut – as we did in the aftiermath of Cyclone Jasper earlier this year.
During floods, we move stock to safer ground and continue our services.
We volunteer at relief centres and ensure communities continue to get the care they need.
But even without exceptional circumstances, communities can depend on their pharmacies.
We are open when others are not available. We are there to provide advice, services and a caring ear.
We are there when a GP can’t be accessed, or when a patient can’t afford a GP visit because they have stopped bulk billing.
This dependability is possible because of the existing model of community pharmacy in Australia.
At the core of this model are ownership rules. Community pharmacies must always be owned by pharmacists, not big faceless corporations.
Ownership rules have protected Australian patients since time immemorable.
Politicians of all hues need to recommit to these rules as we move forward.
At the last federal election, the political parties commited to the existing model, in writing. This was welcomed by your Guild and community pharmacists across the country.
Tasmania, Queensland, the Northern Territory and the ACT will all go to elections this year.
Thanks to your Tasmanian President Helen O’Byrne, the Tasmanian Government has recommited to maintaining the current ownership rules.
Under your Queensland President Chris Owen, the Queensland Government has introduced the Pharmacy Business Ownership Bill to embed this proven regulatory model.
We look forward to the NT and ACT making similar pre-election commitments.
Pharmacist-owned pharmacies prioritise patients over profit, ensure appropriate clinical governance, and support patient care.
The political consensus must be ongoing, especially with the health system is in crisis.
Accessible
In capital cities, 96% of Australians live within 2.5km of a community pharmacy.
In the rest of Australia, 83% of Australians live within 5km of a community pharmacy.
These pharmacies are open atierhours and on weekends.
When the general practice or medical centre are closed, 64% of pharmacies are still open.
Community pharmacies are Australia’s most accessible primary healthcare destination.
In 332 towns across Australia, community pharmacies are the only healthcare destination.
The past 12 months have seen an extraordinary expansion of community healthcare as state and territory Governments embrace pharmacist’s full scope of practice.
Pharmacist prescribing for hormonal contraceptives and uncomplicated UTIs is becoming standard practice across the nation.
Victorian pharmacists can now treat shingles and psoriasis.
The North Queensland Pilot of 22 conditions has been expanded statewide. NSW will conduct a statewide pilot mirroring Queensland.
Leveraging the unique capability and distribution of community pharmacies, these advances put patients first.
They ensure access to high quality, integrated and cost-effective health services will be available through your community pharmacy.
These reforms are wildly popular. Patients have voted with their feet.
But we aren’t there yet.
The 22 conditions must become permanent practice in every jurisdiction. Not just trials, and not a lotery of geography.
And vulnerable Australians – First Nations, veterans, pensioners – deserve to have their consultation paid for by the Government to the pharmacy.
Same job.
Same pay.
Nothing less.
Affordable
Cost-of-living pressures are hurting everyone – our patients, our staff, our communities and our practices.
To make ends meet, patients are forgoing or limiting the medicines the need.
Rising concerns over the cost of food, fuel and energy are matched by the tragic reality that the price of medicines is out of reach for many Australians.
Before the last election, your Guild campaigned hard to have the general PBS co-payment lowered.
We argued that cuting the copayment from $42.50 to $19 would make some 70 per cent of PBS medicines more affordable for more than 19 million people.
Both major parties commited to cuting the co-payment if elected, and Labor acted on this with the reduction to $30.
This was the result of your advocacy; the advocacy of community pharmacies.
When politicians and community pharmacies work together, meaningful cost of living relief is delivered to patients.
Over the course of 12 months, $250 million flowed back in the pockets of everyday patients.
The need to cost of living relief is more urgent than ever.
The annual consumer price index rise from January 1 has now seen the co-payment creep up to $31.60, eroding some of the gains made by the initial cut.
Medicine affordability is an ongoing issue.
More than 20 per cent of people aged from 18 to 64 describe prescription medication as unaffordable.
According to the ABS, in 2022-23, 1.1 million Australians delayed or deferred their prescription medication due to cost.
Medicines are not ordinary consumables. There are consequences when patients can’t afford their prescriptions.
A 2019 Australian study pointed to an estimated $10.4 billion annual cost of medication non-adherence.
As populations age and cost of living pressure hit, this figure will only worsen.
We need provide further cost of living relief to ensure medicines remain affordable.
It is no secret that the Guild loathes the annual CPI indexation of prescription medication. It is a hidden tax increase that stings patients every year.
A tax on healthcare.
It just makes sense for the Government to reduce the cost of prescription medicine in a cost of living crisis.
It’s good for patients.
It’s good policy, and good politics.
The conversations around your dispensaries should be clinical, focusing on health outcomes, rather than what medication a patient can’t afford this month.
Patients don’t choose their medication or their healthcare providers based on price comparisons.
Community Pharmacy Agreement
Genuine reforms are hard.
When policies sound too good to be true, they often are.
The lesson from the last 12 months is that when the Government implements policy unilaterally, implementation is difficult and health outcomes suffer.
However, when the Government works with your Guild, on your behalf:
- Healthcare is more affordable. Impactful cost of living relief is delivered, like the first copayment reduction in the history of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
- Healthcare outcomes improve and community healthcare is more accessible – look at the Scope of Practice transformations being led by Labor Governments in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
- Community pharmacies are sustainable, able to be depended upon by local communities.
Genuine reforms are delivered through Community Pharmacy Agreements, not in spite of them.
It is a lesson handed down through your Guild, from Colin, to John, to Kos, to George and to me.
Thanks to your advocacy during our Save Your Local Pharmacy campaign, and the 200,000 plus signatures of your patients, the Guild and the Government agreed to enter negotiations for a new, 8th Community Pharmacy Agreement.
Many of you came to APP2024 expecting an announcement on the 8CPA.
You are not alone.
Friends, this speech has been rewriten in the past 12 hours.
This morning, I can announce to you that:
- A Heads of Agreement for a new Community Pharmacy Agreement has been signed by the Commonwealth Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia;
- The Heads of Agreement reflects an intended Australian Government investment of an additional $3 billion in community pharmacy, and in cheaper medicines;
- The full details of the measures contained in the Heads of Agreement remain to be finalised by the parties as soon as practicable; and
- The parties will use their best endeavours to agree an 8CPA commencing from 1 July 2024.
I understand that you will have many questions. You will want to know what this Heads of Agreement will mean for your community pharmacies.
Your Guild is not at liberty to divulge the finer details of the Heads of Agreement because we still need to setle the final agreement.
And I assure you that any mischievous scutlebut you hear in the trade hall or on social media is wide of the mark and uninformed.
But you do know our principles – our long-standing patient focussed positions.
Your Guild has always been fully commited to – in the Health Minister’s words – signing a CPA that delivers more affordable medicines for patients, while ensuring a vibrant and growing community pharmacy industry.
Your National Council resolved to sign the Heads of Agreement because not only were these principles met, but our particulars were met as well.
We are not the first generation of Guild leaders to throw the matresses to the wall.
As Bob Hawke said back in 1990, “Over the last 12 months the Commonwealth Government and the Pharmacy Guild have had something of a blue, and it has been a beauty.”
Tension and conflict are necessary parts of the public policy debate in Australia’s robust democracy.
Having resolved our differences, your Guild looks forward to working with the Commonwealth Government to continue delivering world-class community healthcare to Australian patients.
In front of you all, I wish to express your Guild’s acknowledgement of the people who made this resolution possible.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - His pragmatism, and focus on patients, is commended and appreciated. He is a supporter of community pharmacies, and community pharmacists.
Health Minister Mark Butler - We fiercely disagreed on 60 day dispensing, but have never disagreed on wanting the best health outcomes for Australian patients.
I have never doubted the Minister’s enduring commitment to the interests of Australian patients, or his resolve within negotiations.
While there is work to be done to finalise the 8CPA agreement, I want to publicly recognise the effort and contribution your Guild’s negotiation team, led by the indefatigable Anthony Tassone.
We all love a sporting analogy; none more than Anthony.
Anthony has been the Guild’s Best on Ground.
It has been a champion team.
Anthony has been ably and fiercely supported by Nick Panayiaris, Natalie Willis, Simon Blacker and David Heffernan.
We are indebted to their efforts. They left their families and their pharmacies every week to deliver this agreement for you.
For Anthony and David in particular – this has been a 12 month batle.
Gerard Benedet, who we plucked out of Queensland to run the National Secretariat has, in four months, ticked off his most important KPI.
The Agreement document will be publicly available once complete.
We have more meetings with the Department scheduled for next week, but the heads of agreement is a significant step forward. It provides the core for a successful execution of the 8CPA.
Once the details are setled, we’ll be travelling around the country via our State of the Industry Roadshows.
We will explain to Members and industry what’s part of the agreement, and the bright future ahead for community pharmacy.
Thank you for your support.