The Coalition Government is providing more than $100 million for regional, rural and remote pharmacies to better support their communities through an expansion to a critical regional pharmacy program.
\nOver 400 additional pharmacies will be eligible for the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (RPMA) program under changes announced today, with very remote pharmacies receiving significant additional funding to support the supply of medicines and healthcare in their community.
\nThese changes will help ensure all Australians can access the medicines and pharmacy services they need, where and when they need them, and is a key outcome of the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) signed with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in June 2020. The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is also a Signatory to relevant parts of\u00a0the Agreement.
\nCommunity pharmacies play a vital role in providing access to medicines and essential health services for the third of Australians who live in regional, rural and remote areas.
\nOur Government, through the RPMA,\u00a0supports access to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines and pharmacy services for people in regional, rural and remote communities.
\nThe Coalition is boosting its investment in the RPMA program from $16 million per year under the previous 6CPA to $21 million per year of the 7CPA through changes agreed to by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
\nThe changes to the RPMA program will support more than 400 new pharmacies which will be eligible for the first time to participate from areas that were previously not eligible.
\nThis will take the total number of pharmacies eligible for the RPMA to 1215 community pharmacies.
\nIn addition, higher allowances will be available for up to 960 community pharmacies in rural, remote and very remote areas with low prescription volumes.
\nThe RPMA program will transition to the Modified Monash Model of rural classification, from 1 January 2021, to align with other health workforce distribution programs.
\nEligible pharmacies will receive between $3,000 to $51,328 per year under this expansion, depending on their remoteness classification and PBS prescription volumes.
\nThe Government recognises the importance of maintaining the pharmacy network to provide a steady and reliable supply of medicines and other pharmacy services, in particular to people outside in the regions.
\nCommunity pharmacies stepped up to support their patients during 2020, and have kept their doors open during this year\u2019s bushfires, drought, floods and COVID-19 pandemic.
\nAll Australians benefit from equitable and sustainable access to effective medicines, including highly specialised, expensive and lifesaving medicines through the PBS.
\nMaking sure all Australians have access to timely, safe and affordable medicines continues to be an Australian Government priority.
\nThe RPMA is one of a range of pharmacy programs supported by a $1.2 billion investment in pharmacy programs under the 7CPA.
\nThe overall investment in the 7CPA over the period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 is expected to be $18.35 billion.
\nThe Coalition Government has made approximately 2500 new and amended medicines listings on the PBS since 2013, at an overall investment of close to $12 billion.
\nOur Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.
\nGeorge Tambassis, National President, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has welcomed the increased support for community pharmacy.
\n\u201cThe Pharmacy Guild of Australia welcomes this expansion of support for the vital work that community pharmacies in regional, rural and remote Australia perform every day.
\n\u201cIn many small towns across Australia, the local community pharmacy is the only health infrastructure, and it is imperative that appropriate support is given to enable those pharmacies to sustain their service to patients.\u201d
\n\u201cDirect contact with a health professional such as a community pharmacist is a benefit that all Australians should be able to have\u00a0access to, wherever they live.\u201d
\n\u201cWe thank the Government for agreeing to this increase in funding for the program, and we will support our Member pharmacies in making the transition to the new program,\u201d Mr Tambassis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Coalition Government is providing more than $100 million for regional, rural and remote pharmacies to better support their communities through an expansion to a critical regional pharmacy program. Over 400 additional pharmacies will be eligible for the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (RPMA) program under changes announced today, with very remote pharmacies receiving significant additional … Continue reading “Government boosts funding for community pharmacies to support more rural and regional communities”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}