Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has refused to defer the date for next year’s implementation of reduced dispensing fees for pharmacists, the Pharmaceutical Stakeholders’ Forum said on Saturday.
”After the close of business yesterday [Friday], the minister of health informed the Pharmacy Stakeholders’ Forum [PSF] of her decision not to defer the implementation date of the new dispensing fee for pharmacists,” said spokesperson Anita Heyl.
A new dispensing-fee structure was published in the Government Gazette at the beginning of December.
In September last year, Tshabalala-Msimang was ordered by the Constitutional Court to go back to the drawing board after the dispensing fees she had announced were found to be inappropriate.
Now, according to an actuarial study into the implications of the new fees, only about 22% of pharmacies are likely to survive because the fees allow for an average mark-up of R21,45 an item, whereas pharmacies need to be able to charge about R28 to cover their overheads.
”The PSF met with the director general of health on December 5 to inform the department of the potentially negative impact the proposed new dispensing fee would [have] on pharmaceutical service delivery in South Africa.”
Heyl said the dispensing fee will place some community pharmacies under crippling financial strain and as many as 75% of pharmacies could be at risk of closing.
She added that based on extensive information and the practical experience of its members, the PSF is ”convinced that the introduction of the fee will escalate the growing crisis in pharmacies and will harm the health of the public, as accessibility to medicines will be compromised”.
”The minister indicated in her letter to the PSF that the matter of deferment was also discussed with the pricing committee.
”It seems the pricing committee has again failed to comprehend the realities of the present marketplace and the practicalities of providing a comprehensive quality pharmaceutical service, especially with reference to human resources, return on investment, security and rental costs.”
The current practice environment has already resulted in closure of pharmacies, leaving some communities without adequate pharmaceutical services, Heyl said.
At the end of November, opposition parties strongly criticised Tshabalala-Msimang over her medicine-dispensing fees policy, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) calling for the suspension of the new fees system.
”It may take another protracted and expensive legal battle over dispensing fees to convince the minister of health that she cannot simply act on her own whims,” DA spokesperson Gareth Morgan said at the time.
”To avoid a legal battle, the minister at the very least needs to hold discussions directly with pharmacists about these new fees — something that, quite astoundingly, has not happened yet, although the livelihoods of [about] 2 800 pharmacists, and their dependants, are directly affected by these fees,” he said. — Sapa