NEW BENEFITS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 108, 9 May 1941, Page 8

NEW BENEFITS

CHEMISTS , SCHEME

"WORKING FAIRLY WELL"

Opinion in Auckland is that the pharmacy benefits under the Social Security Act have worked fairly well during their first week, but a lot of extra work in the way of costing has been thrown, on Auckland chemists. Under the scheme, a person, after receiving a prescription from a registered medical practitioner, is entitled to receive the medicine prescribed free of charge from any chemist who lias contracted to supply '"pharmaceutical requirements" under the Social Security Act. However, there is a qualification that medicines provided free are limited to drugs and other materials classified as "official" in the British Pharmacopoeia. Postage and delivery charges, if any; have also to be met by the applicant, and the chemist is entitled to require them to be prepaid.

One of Auckland's leading medical practitioners said to-day that under the scheme much extra work was thrown on both the doctors and the chemists, as the former now had to set out prescriptions in detail, whereas, before, many could be used in a more or less abbreviated form. The scheme did not cover various proprietary preparations often prescribed by medical men. There was also the question of new drugs coming into use. and it might take some time before they got into the pharmacopoeia. He said'that if a person wanted a sponge cake it could be ordered from a baker by merely giving that name, and it would not be necessary to specify all the ingredients. In giving an ordinary prescription it was now necessary to give the chemist the fullest details, so that it could be costed out and checked by the Department. He referred to medicine supplies for out-patients at the Auckland Hospital who were sent to chemists, and said it appeared that the Hospital Board would have to pay for drugs which were not included in the official-list. The medical practitioner added that the scheme would probably adjust itself in time, but it might be open to abuse. He thought it was quite possible that the scheme might break down, and it also might mean an increased tax on the people paying for it. "It looks as if we will have to be accountants as well," said an Auckland chemist this morning, who added that in the case of a number of prescriptions made up yesterday the amount that had to be paid by the people getting the medicine was very small. The chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board. Mr. Allan J. Moody, said that the question of prescriptions for out-patients of the Auckland Hospital was receiving careful consideration, but at the present time no definite statement could be made. It was misleading to the public to suggest that it was a free medicine scheme.