A competition review in Australia has concluded that legislation which restricts pharmacy ownership predominantly to pharmacists should be retained. The review concluded that the restriction of ownership, other than in a few cases of friendly societies and some long-established corporate pharmacies allowed under "grandparenting" arrangements, was a serious restriction on competition but provided a net benefit to the community as a whole.
"Pharmacist proprietorship of pharmacies adds reasonable value to the professional quality and performance of that network," the review concluded.
However, the review did not recommend maintenance of the status quo in all areas. It suggested that restrictions included in the Australian Pharmacy Acts and regulatory machinery that concerned such matters as the goods and services which should be available from pharmacies and commercial relationships between pharmacists and others should be removed.
"Pharmacists are, after all, professionals whose training enables them to trust their personal judgment and make all manner of decisions carefully and analytically," it said.
It also recommended the removal of any requirement for pharmacy premises to be registered, subject to a continuing legislative requirement that pharmacists and their managers ensured that premises were of a minimum standard of fitness for the safe and competent delivery of pharmacy services.
So far as pharmacists as individuals are concerned, the review concluded that registration and regulation requirements should continue, but that regulations should be at the minimum level necessary to ensure safe and competent practice.
"Standards for safe and competent pharmacists and pharmacy services should be set or adopted by governments on behalf of the community at large and be administered and implemented by regulatory authorities, such as pharmacy boards," the review concluded.
These pharmacy boards, it said, should be demonstrably open, transparent and effective, so that they were seen as being directly accountable to the community, and not just to the profession. For this reason, it was important that they should be appointed, not elected, although the majority of appointees would be expected to be pharmacists.
Details of the review can be found on the internet at www.health.gov.au/haf/pharmrev/final.htm.