Bill would free up chemist ownership

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 10

Bill would free up chemist ownership

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

The Government is considering introducing legislation to deregulate the ownership of pharmacies.

Its Cabinet Economic Committee will consider a Health Department report and draft legislation at a meeting scheduled for next week.

The legislation has been four years in the development but in its final form might be only a short bill of a few clauses.

It was originally intended to be part of a much larger bill dealing with a number of pharmaceutical issues.

But pharmacy ownership has come to be seen as a separate issue arising from the Government’s wish to deregulate industries it regards as closed shops. Present legislation permits a maximum of 25 per cent of a pharmacy to be owned by someone other than a registered pharmacist. In December, 1985, the then Minister of Health,

Dr Bassett, received a report from the Treasury and the departments of Health and Trade and Industry on restrictions on the ownership of pharma-

cies. It gave four options, including the removal of restrictions on the ownership of retail pharmacies. But Dr Bassett chose

another option after receiving submissions from the Pharmaceutical Society. He said he would lower the minimum level

of ownership by professional pharmacists to 51 per cent. The joint departmental report had found nothing pernicious in pharmacists not having controlling ownership, as long as they continued to have absolute authority over the issuing of prescription drugs. Dr Bassett’s plans were overtaken by the 1987 General Election and the

appointment of a new Minister, Mr Caygill. Mr Caygill said he planned to introduce the bill as Dr Bassett had outlined it, but gave no guarantee that the minimum level of 51 per cent ownership would not be altered by a Parliamentary select committee if evidence warranted a change. Mr Caygill’s intentions became caught up in the review of deregulation of industry ownership being done by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer. Mr Palmer’s officials Were not so sure that a minimum of 51 per cent ownership was in the public interest.

They argued that if pharmacies were owned by chains, as supermarkets were, thy could offer greater discounts on retail items. The new Minister of

Health, Ms Clark, commissioned a report from her officials at the same time Mr Palmer’s officials were urging greater deregulation in ownership.

Next week’s Cabinet committee meeting will consider recommendations for a bill that deregulates ownership while leaving drugs and pharmaceuticals in the hands of those qualified to dispense them.

Ms Clark has given no public indication of where she stands on the issue. But in reply to a question in Parliament during June, she said she hoped to introduce the bill “in the coming months.” The Opposition spokesman on health, Mr Don McKinnon, told a pharmacists’ meeting in Invercargill in April that he agreed with Dr Bassett’s 51 per cent minimum.