The boss of Chemist Warehouse has warned doubling prescription lengths and increasing the amount of medicine Australians can get with each script will cause drug shortages.

Chemist Warehouse director Mario Tascone says the change being pushed by doctors “could work well” with a long lead time, but would cause havoc if it was introduced quickly.

“Today, to introduce double dispensing is just kicking a big own goal — you’d run out of medicines pretty quick,” he told Tony Jones, filling in for Neil Mitchell.

Press PLAY below to hear why pharmacists are concerned