7CPA delivers certainty to change

PHARMACY owners need to embrace the certainty provided by the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) to prepare for the post-COVID-19 business environment, Medici Capital Managing Director, Frank Sirianni, believes.

Speaking on the latest Sirianni Market Update yesterday, the pharmacy valuations expert hailed the 7CPA as “absolutely fantastic”.

“You have to look at the 7CPA in the context of a) the current economic environment, including COVID-19, and b) the overall circumstances across the whole health spectrum,” he said.

“With this pandemic it is obvious that the Government has a number of issues that it’s dealing with, and it’s fantastic that the Pharmacy Guild of Australia was able to get the Government to sign-off on this.

“In broad terms the number one thing is that we have certainty, and number two is that there is inherent growth in the 7CPA in terms of indexation of fees, the dispensary fees and generally speaking this is an extraordinary outcome in the context of declining markets and the economic conditions we’re in.”

While the 7CPA provides much needed certainty of the community pharmacy sector, Sirianni urged owners to “recognise there’s a limited budget” and “develop strategies which are not contingent upon the Government’s purse”.

“If you can directly engage with the patient... have a relationship which is meaningful and valuable to the consumer then you will be better off,” he said.

“Use this five-year period to think about how you can reduce your emphasis and reliance on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.”

Sirianni also warned pharmacy owners that they can no longer expect customers to revert to pre-COVID shopping patterns.

“You’ve got to now start to recognise that we’ve got a ‘new normal’,” he said.

“You’ve got to react to that, we just can’t assume that everything is going to go back to what it was.

“People are working from home, there’s massive unemployment... now pharmacy does very well in these times, but you’ve got to pivot to be able to service those patients, because they’re no necessarily going to come into your pharmacy.

“They’re going to look to other means whether that’s delivery services, fulfilment services or telepharmacy.”