PHARMACY PLAN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22591, 22 December 1938, Page 10

PHARMACY PLAN

Regulations Now Gazetted

REORGANISATION OF INDUSTRY

Necessary Power Given Committee

tFBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, December 21. The Industrial Efficiency (Pharmacy) Regulations. 1933, are published in the Gazette to-day. These regulations have been prepared under the provisions of the Board of Trade Act, 1919, and the Industrial Efficiency Act, 1936, and give effect to the provisions of the industrial plan which was prepared by the Bureau of Industry for the pharmacy industry. The regulations are divided into five parts, the most important of which are those conferring on the Pharmacy Plan Industrial Committee certain powers for ■the reorganisation of the industry and the payment by pharmacists of annual licence fees and levies. The industry to which the regulations apply is that licensed under the provisions of the Industrial Efficiency Act, and described as the "business of any chemist or druggist, carried on by the keeping of any open shop or place for the compounding or dispensing of prescriptions." Under part 3 of the regulations, the Pharmacy Plan Industrial Committee, the personnel of which was announced by the Minister for Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) earlier in the year, is given power to carry out several duties which were included in the industrial plan as accepted by the industry. Included in these is the power to make recommendations to the Bureau of Industry on all applications for licences, or transfers of licences (so far as the pharmacy industry is concerned) under the Industrial Efficiency Act, and to make recommendations to the bureau on increases or reductions in the annual licence fee, and the levy payable by pharmacists as provided in the regulations.

. SurVey of Industry The committee is to be responsible to the Bureau of Industry for conducting a survey or surveys of the distribution and operation of pharmacies and the public service rendered by pharmacies. It is to have power to arrange amalgamations and transfers of pharmacies, and is to make recommendations when necessary to the bureau for the payment of compensation for loss of business or otherwise in any cases where the payment of such compensation is deemed to be necessary or desirable. Another important duty of the committee will be to investigate prices and conditions under which pharmacists purchase drugs, and also the prices • charged by pharmacists for drugs and medicines, either when included in prescriptions or when sold or dispensed uncompounded. Provision is made for the preparation and issue by the committee of prescription pricing schedules, setting out the amounts to be charged by pharmacists jfor compounding prescriptions, etc. Other • provisions . cover* such points as the modernisation of pharmacies, the co-ordination of selling and display methods of the industry, appropriate advertising calculated to increase the goodwill of the industry, the employment and training of pharmacy apprentices, the making of recommendations to the . Minister _ for Health for the control of quackery, and such or'ganising. and administration as the Government may require under the pharmaceutical benefits section of the ■Social Security Act, 1938.

Licence Fees Part IV of the regulations deals with the licencefees and levies to be paid by all pharmacists. It. is incumbent on all persons carrying on the pharmacy industry to. apply to the bureau _or licences as from December 1. The annual licence fee is to be £1 a year !for each pharmacy, together with an iannual levy computed as follows: with a sales turnover not .(exceeding £IOOO, £4; pharmacies with a, sales turnover exceeding £IOOD but not exceeding £2OOO, £5; pharmacies with a sales, turnover exceeding £2OOO but not exceeding £3OOO, £6; pharmacies •with a sales turnover exceeding J£3ooo but not exceeding £4OOO, £7; 'pharmacies with a sales turnover exceeding £4OOO but not exceeding £SOOO •|£B; pharmacies with a sales turnover exceeding £SOOO, £B, plus 10/- for each £SOO of sales turnover exceeding i£sooo. Provisions are included in this part for the computation of sales turnover, and as to the manner of payment "of the fee and levy. Applications for leave to transfer licences or for appeals against licensing decisions are subject to a fee of £2, which, in the 3atter case, is to be refunded if the mppeal is substantially successful.