Transcript - Doorstop - 60-day dispensing

Transcript: AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton and federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, Doorstop, Windsor, Friday 1 September 2023

Subjects: 60-day dispensing; vaccine mandates; payroll tax

DR MARIA BOULTON:   This is a day where we've had a really big win for patients - 60-day dispensing will make medicines cheaper and more accessible to patients. Not a day goes by when one of us doesn’t have a patient come in and say, "Doctor, what medication can I do without this month because I cannot afford them all?" And that is a disaster because we know that people who have chronic illness, who are on medications, need those medicines to stay well and out of hospital. And this will help those patients access medications cheaper and also it will stop them from having to travel to buy those medications. We see patients who have social anxiety, we see patients who have to travel a long way to access those medications, and to be able to get a two-month supply will certainly help them when it comes to looking after their health.

SENATOR MURRAY WATT:   Well, thank you very much Maria, for having us at your practice today. It was fantastic to have a look around and as we were discussing, it's a surprisingly large practice here for inner-city Brisbane and terrific that you are able to also offer a range of specialist services here. It's no wonder that your practice received the College's GP Practice of the Year here in Queensland as a result of the care that you're providing. And of course, I want to thank you as well for taking on the additional role as the AMA Queensland President, which must make for a pretty busy life on top of running a GP practice.

As Maria has said, today is a really important day for Queenslanders because we understand that Queenslanders are facing cost of living pressures. And this is a real step from the Albanese government to help Queenslanders with those cost of living pressures that they're experiencing.

Already on the 1st of January this year, we introduced the first stage of our Cheaper Medicines package, bringing down the cost of PBS medicines from $42.50 per script to $30 per script. And that's already saved Queenslanders over $27 million just this year, taking real pressure off their cost of living experiences. And from today, we see the beginning of stage two of our Cheaper Medicines package, which will open up the door for GPs to prescribe on a 60-day basis.

As Maria has said, what that means is that consumers and patients will need to come to the doctor less often in order to get those repeat scripts. That will obviously be good for GPs in terms of taking pressure off busy GP practices for providing those scripts. But importantly, it's also very good news for Queenslanders in terms of the costs that they face, because it will significantly reduce the costs that patients face when they go to the pharmacy, only having to go every two months rather than every month to get those scripts repeated.

We estimate that they'll save Queenslanders with a Medicare card up to $180 per year. And that's in addition to those savings that people have already benefited from the changes that we brought in on the 1st of January this year. And for concession card holders, it's an even bigger saving of about $43 per medicine. So these are real savings that people will be getting with their medicines. This is not really a discretionary expense for people. If you're on medication for heart disease, or high cholesterol, or osteoporosis or Crohn's disease, or any of those chronic conditions, they're not really optional extras.

But as Maria has said, unfortunately more and more people are finding that they're having to make choices about whether they get their medication renewed on time or whether they prioritise other expenses. So the Albanese government's Cheaper Medicines policy will go a long way to helping people save dollars in their pocket and also making sure that they can get their medication needs as they need them.

It's also particularly good news in a state like Queensland which is very decentralised because, for a lot of regional Queenslanders, making a trip to the pharmacy or to the GP can be a difficult, time-consuming exercise. So again, by reducing the number of times that people have to go to their GP and to the pharmacy to get their script filled, that's saving people time as well as saving them their money. So we thank the AMA and many GPs for their support for this. It's going to be good for GPs, good for patients, and good for people's health as well. Happy to take any questions.

QUESTION:   Maria, do you want to say something about the vaccine mandate that Minister Fentiman has announced today, the changes?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Sure. We had a call from the acting Chief Health Officer yesterday announcing that Queensland Health and the government are looking at removing the vaccine mandates for COVID for Queensland health workers. We understand that they're going to go into a consultation process for the next two weeks and that they will reach out further to stakeholders such as AMA Queensland to see what the safest path is moving forward. At the end of the day, we can't forget that COVID is still here. People are still dying. Vaccines play an integral role in reducing those deaths and reducing the number of people that end up in hospital with severe disease. So vaccinations still remain the number one weapon in our arsenal in Queensland that we have to fight this disease and we look forward to those meetings and conversations.

I'd also like to add that I think there's going to be a lot of patients also wondering about the 60-day dispensing and 12-month prescribing that will come in from today. I think it's really important that if people have any questions, that they have a chat to their GP about it. That's what we're there for, to help patients navigate through the healthcare system as well. So we welcome questions and this is a great initiative. Not only will it save people time from having to go to the pharmacy every month, but also, if they have a chronic disease and they're stable on their medication, they will be able to now get a 12-month prescription rather than just six months from their GP.

The other thing I'd like to bring up today is we're all about making healthcare accessible to patients and we've seen some great initiatives from the federal government, but we're also very worried about payroll tax being now levied onto patients when they access their GPs by the state. This is a really immoral tax. This really taxes people who are the most vulnerable in our community who need access to those GP services. And this is why it's really important that all the state and territory governments consider an exemption for patients accessing their GP from this payroll or patient tax that will make it much, much more expensive for patients to access that care.

It doesn't make sense to make medications accessible on one side, but then levy patients through the states with a patient tax. At the end of the day, what we need is for GP services to be as accessible as possible. We keep people well and out of hospitals and without general practice, and especially in a state such as Queensland, where we are so decentralised, it will be patients that will suffer.