PBS not out of the woods

Simone Roberts

 
Stephen Dellar, assistant secretary of the pharmaceutical evaluation branch of the Department of Health and Ageing, said the department would seek further savings from the scheme, despite PBS reform and Guild figures showing a massive fall in the number of PBS prescriptions.

"I'm not trying to frighten you," Mr Dellar told delegates at APP2008 last fortnight.

"I'm not saying you're about to face a lot of additional changes in the PBS. What I am saying is that when governments are looking at exercising economy, one of the things they will have to look at is the PBS, because it is a big cost, a big and growing cost...It can't just be swept to one side."

His comments came one day after a Guild release showed a fall in the number of PBS prescriptions compared to government projections. According to the Guild, data for the first eight months of the current financial year shows there will be approximately 22 million fewer prescriptions in the system in 2007-08 than was predicted in the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement, creating a saving of around $700 million for this year alone.

"The Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement, signed in November 2005, projected that the total number of subsidised scripts in 2007-08 would be 209 million. Based on official data up to February and extending current growth rates to June, the Guild expects that the actual total will be around 187 million," the statement said.

Guild president Kos Sclavos said he hoped the government would begin to see the PBS as an investment, rather than a cost.