On many occasions over the last fifteen years I have seen good pharmacies become average pharmacies. This has been for many varied reasons. It could be due to competitive forces in the market place,because of changing demographics of a particular area, changes to business conditions, making a poor choice in relation to a marketing group,
The key to financial management is ‘timeliness’ and ‘accuracy (detail)’. Historically, financial reporting has been given little importance in pharmacy because of the following reasons: Regulation of ownership and location rules has protected income; Pharmacy is a cash business with the largest payer being the Government; Access to money from banks has been effortless; Meeting
Are you a young pharmacist who is working as a managing pharmacist in a large pharmacy and wondering how and when will you ever be able to afford to buy an interest in such a pharmacy, given the constant increase in pharmacy prices? Have you been fortunate enough to receive an offer from the owner
Franchises have a proved and popular and enduring model for pharmacy. The number and variety of those agreements coming across my desk suggests that the allure of the franchise is not fading and that the model will continue to go from strength to strength. Franchise agreements are notoriously franchisor friendly. As a result of the
Part VII of the National Health Act 1953 (Cth) regulates the operation of the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by, in part, controlling the number and distribution of pharmacies approved to supply subsidised medicines under that Scheme. To this end it creates a process for decision making (based on a set of strict pharmacy location
By now you will have started receiving your PBS reimbursement minus the on-line fee. Most of you will not have felt the decrease because the opportunity of substituting generics in the dispensary continues to support the net profit. However, with the outcome of price disclosure set to affect the net profit of pharmacy in the
The referral by the States of their industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth, earlier this year, means for pharmacy that the employer/employee relationship in most if not all cases is governed by the Commonwealth Fair Work Act 2009 and the Pharmacy Industrial Award 2010. While its Work Choices predecessor precluded unfair dismissal claims against the
Following on from my last article when I was referring to the current trading conditions, it is apparent that the economy and general trading conditions in pharmacy are not as buoyant as previous years. Add to this the announced cuts to income in the 5th Agreement and the future reductions in income flowing from the
When I recently raised this question with a colleague, he initially looked at me strangely and wondered whether I had “lost my marbles”. I re-assured him that I was fine and that my question was indeed a serious one. At that point we discussed my question at length and somewhat surprisingly to my colleague, he
For many retailers, 2009 was a difficult year, with deep discounting and sluggish or patchy sales. Yet pharmacists performed better than most, enjoying better growth than just about everyone else, with the exception of takeaway food shops and liquor stores. Better still, conditions look set to improve in 2010, although the recovery could hold a