Dozens of pharmacies in Johannesburg and Cape Town closed their doors for three hours on Tuesday as pharmacists took part in a staged protested against new medicine legislation.
Meanwhile, the laws were contested in courts in Pretoria and the Mother City.
Placard-bearing pharmacists stood outside their shops expressing their concern about the introduction of a dispensing fee that they claim is inadequate to ensure the survival of pharmacies, and therefore the entire pharmaceutical supply chain.
Last week, the general membership of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA) called on the society to support the protest action.
In Johannesburg pharmacists and pharmacy employees stood outside their businesses holding aloft placards reading “Closed. Say no to Manto and save pharmacies” and “Closed in protest against new laws”.
Pharmacist David Stein said his shop will be closed until 3pm, and will only open in an emergency.
“Pharmacists need to sacrifice something for a benefit so we have to close even if it means losing business…”
“Most of our customers understand and they are with us in this, and in case of an emergency I will open, but at my discretion.”
He said a dispensing fee will not work “because the retail sector cannot use a flat dispensing fee to cover the more expensive items. Pharmacists will lose out, and who will cover costs of expiring medication, shrinkage in stores etc?”
Pharmacist Phillip Fouche, whose store remained open, said he has informed his customers about the new laws.
“I have left my store open because most of my business is done telephonically anyway, but I will not refuse anyone with a prescription, although I am not happy with the new laws.”
Fouche said the new regulations will close pharmacies because “the margins in the new fees would not be sufficient to run a business and all the staff … will lose their jobs”.
That will force people to get their medication from hospitals, and this will lead to chaos.
The PSSA’s Anita Heyl said many pharmacies around the country took part in the protest.
PSSA president Siddiq Tayob earlier said pharmacists support the introduction of cheaper medicines and a transparent pricing system, but not to the extent that the delivery of medicines is “severely compromised or even sacrificed. Without medicine, there is no health care.”
He said new medicine pricing regulations will deny millions of patients easy access to medicines.
Tayob said the PSSA has presented the government with viable alternatives to the regulations to ensure the survival of existing pharmacies and the expansion of services into underserviced areas.
In Cape Town, where a court clash between the legal teams of the health ministry and pharmacists was averted when the two groups disappeared behind closed doors to thrash out a settlement on the regulations, pharmacists also closed their doors.
At one pharmacy in the city centre staff stood outside on the pavement with placards, explaining their stand to passers-by.
Staff from another city centre pharmacy manned a table on the pavement asking for signatures on a petition calling for a review of the regulations. The petition was headed “Save our local pharmacy campaign”. By 1.30pm several hundred people had signed it.
“We just want to make the people aware how difficult it will be when the doors of a pharmacy are closed,” said employee Marlene Tomlinson.
Her own pharmacy is “definitely” threatened by the new regulations.
Asked about clients’ reactions when they found the pharmacy shut, she said: “They’re very upset … they’re upset with the whole idea.”
Those people said they will return later in the afternoon.
The Cape Town court challenge, expected back in court after lunch, was jointly launched by seven pharmacy and health-care groups in the Cape High Court on Friday. The PSSA, the United South African Pharmacies, the Chronic Medicines Dispensary, Pharmacross, MediCross, Netcare and IM Davis (the Netcare in-hospital pharmacies) have asked the court to suspend the regulations.
This brings to at least nine the number of legal challenges against the Medicines and Related Substance Act, which came into force on May 2.
The National Convention on Dispensing was also in court on Tuesday. It hopes the Pretoria High Court will give it permission to go to the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether dispensing doctors have to reapply for their licences. — Sapa
Manto ‘acted beyond her powers’