3 May 2016 - The Pharmacy Guild of Australia welcomes the fact that the 2016 Federal Budget does not include any further adverse changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme affecting community pharmacies.

It is vital for the pharmacy sector and pharmacy small business owners that they have a stable remuneration environment to be able to operate their businesses.

The significant package legislated last year is delivering huge savings to the Government and is imposing significant pressures on community pharmacy revenues. The last thing the owners of local pharmacies across Australia and the wider medicines sector needed tonight would have been further policy shifts affecting their bottom lines.

Government expenditure on the PBS is forecast in the Budget to increase by 3.4 per cent in nominal terms next financial year due to new and amended listings and growth in the demand for existing listings.

However, in real terms expenditure is expected to decrease marginally over the period 2016-17 to 2019-20 as a result of the application of price disclosure and other PBS reforms. Estimates for the PBS provided in the Budget do not include the potential listing of new medicines or price adjustments to existing listings.

For more details, go to: https://www.guild.org.au/the-guild