A war of words has broken out between the Guild and APESMA over pharmacy's electronic prescription initiative.
The clash comes as the original partners in the joint venture part ways.
Announced by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia at APP2008 in March this year, ScriptX was relaunched as eRx Script Exchange last week following the withdrawal of health IT vendors Health Communications Network (HCN) and Corum Health from the venture over concerns that the project was too risky without clarification from the government over its own intentions for an e-script system.
Fred Health, the other member of the joint venture, announced it would partner with New Zealand software company Simpl and Microsoft Australia in version two of the project. The new initiative also has the backing of the Guild.
Following the relaunch, Dr Geoff March, president of the Pharmacist Division of APESMA, questioned the Guild's involvement in the project saying it is a "money making private venture that will reduce the income of every pharmacy in Australia".
"The Guild is charging each and every pharmacy 10 cents a prescription for the delivery of a prescription that currently costs pharmacy absolutely nothing. And the money generated will go straight into the coffers of the Guild. The Guild is a partner in the company that has developed this IT program, not that the Guild has made this fact very clear to we pharmacists," he said.
"It has invested in a private IT scheme which it obviously believes is going to make an absolute killing. Why else would it give away $1 million in revenue at the establishment stage?"
The union also raised concerns that the e-script storage site will be under the control of a private organisation and not Medicare Australia.
Guild president Kos Sclavos, who is this week in the UK examining the country's e-prescription system, said the reason the Guild had invested in the project was to make sure that pharmacy builds a system that doesn't make life miserable for pharmacists.
He said that in the UK the pharmacy profession was not consulted on the e-prescription model and was "left behind" after firms like Accenture invested tens of millions of government dollars in the system.
"They then left, and left behind a mess," he said. "IT can make or break our profession. You can't stand on the sidelines and complain – we are in there investing and groups like APESMA are becoming the spectators of pharmacy.
"It's laughable I am in the UK looking at pharmacy IT systems as APESMA bleats from the side lines. APESMA has no money invested, no 'hurt' money invested in the game. We are investing money in our profession's future," Mr Sclavos said.