Government funding cuts mean Victorians will be left without 24-hour pharmacies.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Many sick Victorians have been really shocked by this announcement. People that really rely
00:06 on this service and see it as a great alternative to rocking up to emergency departments after
00:12 midnight. Instead they would make their way to 24/7 pharmacies like this one here behind
00:17 me in Yarraville in Melbourne's inner city to fill scripts or consult with a chemist.
00:22 But now they won't be able to. The super care pharmacies were set up by the state government
00:27 back in 2016. They set up 20 centres across the state, 8 of which have been operating
00:33 7 days a week. However from the 1st of January this year, those 8 centres, which are mainly
00:39 across regional locations in Victoria and this one here in Melbourne, are now not going
00:44 to be operating past midnight. Which means there's now going to be a gap of 6 hours where
00:49 those in the community who need to fill scripts won't be able to attend to a chemist after
00:54 midnight. They're potentially going to be funnelled into Victoria's hospital and healthcare
00:58 system. Now the Victorian branch of the Pharmacy Guild says this decision is quite shocking
01:04 and mind-blowing as lots of people in the community really do rely on this service.
01:09 They gave the example of shift workers who will now be left in quite a struggle not being
01:14 able to access pharmacies, potentially at the end of their shift when they finish at
01:18 midnight. We also have personal case studies here in Melbourne that we know of including
01:22 an ABC camera operator in our newsroom who attended to this pharmacy just a few days
01:28 ago after his wife had given birth and was wanting to pick up some medicines for her
01:33 after midnight and was greeted with a poster on the door informing him that this pharmacy
01:38 had been closed to operate past midnight as of the start of this year. So we can obviously
01:43 say many people in the community are going to be impacted by this. However the state
01:47 government says demand for centres like this one here behind me that operates 24/7 has
01:52 decreased in the past few years and they said it's not a viable option and not necessary
01:57 for those to be open for that amount of time across these areas anymore. They said there's
02:02 other options for those who are requiring non-urgent care across the state. They can
02:07 attend priority primary care centres and call Victoria's virtual emergency department as
02:13 an option. They also said GPs on call 24/7 and on-call nurses are also good options for
02:20 non-urgent issues. However we do know the 29 primary care centres that are open, they
02:27 actually don't stay open past midnight so we will potentially see more strain on Victoria's
02:32 healthcare system as those who do need help past midnight will now probably have to present
02:36 to an emergency department.
02:38 [no audio]