Issued by Ministry of Health
1 September 2004
The Department of Health sees as unfortunate the decision of some of the pharmacists in Cape Town to close their pharmacies, in protest against the medicine pricing regulations (under the Medicine Control Act) that were endorsed by the Cape High Court last week.
This action is unnecessary and it brings about undue inconvenience to the consumers.
The pricing regulations apply only to the dispensary section of the pharmacy, which generally constitute about a third of the overall floor space of a pharmacy. The regulations do not apply to the front section of the pharmacy, which provides several other products.
The closure of the whole pharmacy in protest against these regulations can therefore not be justified.
Applicants in a legal action against these regulations presented their case at the Cape High Court. However, the Court decided in favour of the Department of Health that these regulations are practical, appropriate, rational and reasonable and can therefore be implemented.
Pharmacists are professionals who are expected to abide by the rules of the country and we expect them to comply with the ruling of the Cape High court on this matter. Our judicial system has the necessary avenues for those who are not satisfied with a court ruling. It is important that as responsible stakeholders in the health sector, we exhaust these channels instead of resorting to measures that only serve to compromise the health our people.
The regulations are aimed at making medicine affordable to the consumer. We have already witnessed a decrease of up to 19% in the prices of medicine since the implementation of the section requiring manufacturers to sell medicine a single price across the country.
The retail pharmacy industry needs to abide the decision of the Cape High Court to ensure that this significant decrease in prices is passed on to the consumer. There are pharmacies such as Dischem Pharmacies and Pick & Pay Pharmacies that have been implementing the dispensing fee regulations even before the court ruling.
A dispensing fee is capped at R26 for items on prescription, whose price is greater than R100 and 26% if the price is lower than R100. For items not on prescription, the dispensing fee is capped at R16 if the price is greater than R100 and 16% if lower than R100. Similarly, the R16 and 16% provision for dispensing all medicines is applicable to licensed dispensing health personnel who are not pharmacists.
Contact: Sibani Mngadi @ 0827720161