Federal Health Minister Mark Butler told a packed audience that 60-Day prescriptions is not the first time the Guild and a Labor Govt have disagreed on the way forward and won’t be the last time. Speaking at the Pharmacy Guild’s Annual Parliamentary Dinner 2023 held in the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra on Tue night, Butler said the Guild had been “mad” about some of its decisions made over the past 12 months and that at times heated exchanges needed to take place. “These are hard words, and those words were also spoken by Bob Hawke back in 1990 in an address to the pharmacy organisation then,” Butler added. “This has shown again and again that Labor is prepared to do what it takes to strengthen the PBS,” he added, Evidence shows that the 60-Day scripts are delivering patient benefits while maintaining a strong and vibrant pharmacy sector, a sector that has grown in the six months since the policy was introduced, he remarked to an audience of politicians from all sides, Guild officials, members, and pharmacists (pictured). Butler pointed out that in the two months since the 60-Day scripts came into effect in a “phased and measured way as expected for the first 100 medicines, 3% of scripts have been double dispensed, while 97% are single dispensed, with patient savings of almost $5m”. The Health Minister explained that the Govt is “deeply committed to the objective” of delivering the 8th CPA by Mar next year (PD 15 Nov) however, he did caution that “these are big asks in any negotiating time and an even bigger ask in a shorter timeline”. “What will be delivered is an agreement in the next period that is in the spirit of engagement, a recognition of the priorities of the Govt, and of the pharmacy sector, and a willingness to sit down to seriously work through all those issues,” he remarked. “The Govt has elected to speak for Medicare and that means strengthening the PBS to reflect the needs of today not for decades ago. “Cheaper medicines, pharmacy profitability, sustainable govt spending, these are not ends in themselves,” Butler commented. “They are a means to an end, and the end you know is patient benefit.” JG