WA seeks national ownership rules

PHARMACISTS in Western Australia want to see national harmonisation of ownership rules across all states and territories in a state-wide review of pharmacy ownership reveals.

The report found a number of WA-based pharmacists expressed concerns about interstate ownership of pharmacies, suggesting “proprietors could not meet their obligations if they did not have a physical presence in the business”.

“There was some support for owners to need to be resident in WA when owning a pharmacy located in WA,” the review’s authors said.

“However, proprietors are already accountable and there was no specific evidence that these pharmacies are less safe [than those with owners in-store].”

The review also supported retaining rules allowing pharmacists to own a maximum of four pharmacies in the state, “until such time that there is agreement between states and territories on alignment of this limit between Australian jurisdictions”.

The review recommended that “Western Australia actively pursue, or at least engage in, progress with other state and territories, towards harmonisation of pharmacy legislation around Australia”.

“This should be progressed at a suitable Ministerial and intergovernmental level, through an appropriate forum for such agreements,” the authors said.

“In any discussions of this type, Western Australia should seek to ensure that harmonisation does not lead to a material lessening of the robust regulatory system already in place in this State.

“These discussions should consider whether maximum ownership limits in each state allows a form of corporate ownership that is contrary to the intentions of individual jurisdictional law.”