A NEW independent report has found up to 187 jobs and eight pharmacies will be lost in Tasmania due to the Federal Government’s 60-day dispensing medicine policy. The report was conducted by economist Henry Ergas AO with Tulipwood Advisory and the Relational Insights Data Lab at Griffith University, and comes as Tasmania’s pharmacies launch the Save Your Local Pharmacy campaign, with in-store banners, radio, digital and TV advertising to explain the consequences of the 60-DD policy. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s Tasmanian Branch President Helen O’Byrne shared that the policy “will impact tens of thousands of Tasmanian patients”. “Tasmania has a high proportion of rural and regional centres which will be hit hard by any closures. “In the town of Scamander for example, there is no GP, no bank and now the Government is cutting funding for the only pharmacy “Losing that pharmacy will devastate the town,” she said. “While some Tasmanians will benefit from the changes, there will be a cost to everyone else. “This should be a wake-up call to the Federal Government. “It highlights that no consultation was undertaken and that the policy was rushed by the Department of Health with no modelling or understanding of the impact on community pharmacies and Tasmania patients. “Unfortunately, as the new report shows, this policy will force Tasmania pharmacies to cut opening hours, including on weekends and end free services for patients such as blood pressure monitoring, home delivery of medicines and diabetes and asthma programs,” said O’Byrne. The report also found community pharmacies will be forced to cut opening hours by 2.5 hours each day, on average. Kelli Houlahan who runs Westbury Pharmacy in Tasmania’s north said the report’s findings reflected the situation on the ground in their community. “I have been losing sleep trying to work out how I can minimise the impact on our community and continue to keep all staff in full employment,” she said. “Our town has poor access to GPs, and we have a lot of elderly people who rely on us.”