Four-in-five pharmacies set to charge for services previously offered for free

With new 60-day prescriptions set to become available to Australians from next month, pharmacists claim they now have no choice but to charge for services they used to offer for free.

Commonwealth Bank’s Pharmacy Insights 2023 report found four-in-five pharmacies intend to begin charging for services such a home delivery, wound dressings and weighing babies.

President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Trent Twomey, told Neil Mitchell “79 per cent of pharmacies have already started now either increasing prices or implementing prices for the first time on things that were ordinarily free”.

Press PLAY below to hear what pharmacies are now charging for

He says pharmacies have no choice but to charge for the services.

“We’re not against reform, what we’re against is reform being imposed unilaterally by Canberra without co-designing things with frontline health professionals so things can be phased in,” he told Neil Mitchell.