Ryall ignores painful truth of pharmacy contract – Street

Pharmacists were left with no alternative but to sign-up to the new community pharmacy agreement and the Minister of Health is kidding himself if he thinks most did so happily.

Labour's Health spokesperson, Maryan Street says pharmacists had no real choice but to cave in despite their concerns, because they would not have received payment for June if they did not.

"Tony Ryall continues to ignore the pharmacists' concerns over gaps in the contract, such as how much they will get paid after 1 February next year, as well as their anxiety over patient safety and the viability of pharmacies in rural areas.

"He has consistently treated the pharmacists with disdain even though many of them have taken their concerns directly to him. The Pharmacy Guild continues to tell the Minister that all is well when its own members are clear that the opposite is true," she says.

"The change that this contract involves, and the haste with which it has been rushed through, threatens the livelihoods of many pharmacists and the care they can deliver as health professionals. If their pharmacies are not viable, that delivery of health care is threatened.

"Mr Ryall should recognise when there is a problem and do something about it, rather than simply ignoring the cries of these frontline health care providers," says Maryan Street.

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Ryall ignores painful truth of pharmacy contract - Street