Victoria left without 24-hour pharmacies after state government cuts funding

Government funding cuts mean Victorians will be left without 24-hour pharmacies.

Transcript

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.

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