SHPA decries funding slash

AROUND $44m in cuts to hospital pharmacy department budgets will have unforeseen impacts on the care of some of Australia’s most acutely unwell patients, the Society of Hospitals Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) warned yesterday.

The Federal Budget measure that will see a revision to public and private hospital pharmacy pricing on 01 Oct, resulting in a reduction of revenue associated with S85 medicine dispensing, was executed.

SHPA Chief Executive Kristin Michaels said, “On behalf of our members with whom we advocated against this change, SHPA is disappointed to see this cut in funding to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) – through a reduction in funds being paid to hospitals – will now become a reality - see pbs.gov.au.

“In our liaison with the major parties before the Federal Election and with the re-elected Morrison Coalition Government since, we have outlined a number of crucial aspects of patient care and hospital pharmacy services that will be negatively impacted by this decision, and our focus now shifts to supporting our members and the broader sector through these changes.”

Michaels said appropriate medicines funding as a backbone of hospital pharmacy services, the PBS Medicines in Hospitals program, will be central to discussions at SHPA’s upcoming Medicines Leadership Forum in Aug.

The SHPA also called for full mitigation of the cuts through changes to funding in the National Health Reform Agreement 2020-25.