Guild lauds certainty secured in 7CPA

SECURING a deal that delivers certainty for the community pharmacy sector is being hailed as one of the successes of the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA).

Under the new five-year contract between the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Federal Government, a total of $18.3 billion in Commonwealth funding will be available for the sector - down from the $18.9 billion originally allocated to the profession under the 6CPA, which is expected to see a $2.1 billion underspend (PD 11 Jun).

Guild National President, George Tambassis, described the deal the second to be signed under his presidency - as a “fair and reasonable one”, which delivers certainty for the pharmacy owners and value for taxpayers and patients.

“There are no huge increases, but then again why would the Government give us massive increases in this particular environment?” he said.

“It’s the certainty that is the biggest green tick for me.

“There’s no Remuneration Regulation Review - that was a real serious issue last time, going through all the dramas of negotiating an agreement then a couple of years in we basically had a year of reviews.

“There’s a thing called a Remuneration Adjustment Mechanism, a RAM, it’s basically a guarantee [this time].

“So the Government has decided to guarantee our funds this time around... so we’ve tightened the remuneration and the bandwidth of what we can get paid, and what has to be paid back if the volumes get too high... so there are a lot of positives in there.”

However, Tambassis noted that while he believed the 7CPA was a good deal for pharmacy in the current economic climate he said it was “not perfect”.

“The $1 optional discount, which we oppose, is still there, yet not detailed in the agreement,” he said in a video message to members released on Fri.

MEANWHILE, the final version of the 7CPA, which includes details of planned expenditure for the first 12 months of the deal, has yet to be released by the Department of Health.

Guild sources had expected that the document would have been released on Fri, but it is now likely to be published later this week.