‘Triple whammy’ forces Montville Pharmacy to close and relocate

Montville Pharmacy owner, Natalie Lindner, and Fisher MP Andrew Wallace. “We cannot keep doing what we're doing and maintain viability.”

Montville’s only medical centre closed at the beginning of the year and now the chemist is moving to Mapleton, with locals fearing a domino effect of further closures.

Montville Pharmacy owner, Natalie Lindner, said the decision to close was the result of a series of compounding blows.

“It has been a triple whammy of difficulties that have all come at a similar time,” she said. “First of all ... we used to gain a rural incentive, which was helpful to do what we do. But the Modified Monash Model has meant that we have a significant difference in our classification to surrounding towns, which means that we don't attract any rural funding.

Letter to the editor:

Last straw in a long saga

The loss of our pharmacy in Montville is the last straw in a long saga of disappointments. We appreciate the plans to amalgamate with the Mapleton Pharmacy but …. This is a very predictable demise to what was a great service to residents of Montville and beyond. 

The first disaster was the gradual, but intentional, withdrawal by Ochre Health from servicing Montville. Many doctors who had worked there over many years chose to leave Ochre Health, setting up practise elsewhere.

The ‘Monash Model’, introduced many years ago disadvantaged Mapleton and Montville clinics assessing them the same as our large Regional town, Nambour. And a ruling that makes no sense at all has Maleny, bigger than both of them, as Rural, receiving more Government support for doctors fees. 

Many local doctors, Community organisations and patients had written submissions to Federal Gov. representatives over many years asking for a review. Our representative, Andrew Wallace’s response when his party was in power, was that it was a commercial decision made by Ochre Health … nothing to do with Govt. and nothing he could do.

It is good to see that Andrew Wallace, our LNP member is NOW leading a petition regarding the closure of our Pharmacy to the Federal Govt for review. I am sure that all Hinterland constituents will support that, but to me, this does seem somewhat disingenuous! 

Is this just a political move to curry favour with his constituents demanding a response from the present Govt, that he was not prepared to champion when his party was in power?

I am encouraged that after so many years of ignoring this inequity by the Coalition Govt, the Albanese Govt has announced a review of the Monash Model. Maybe we will be able to restore the excellent medical facilities we were used to, and our Montville Pharmacy can re-open

– Pam Maegdefrau, Montville

“The second difficulty has been the doctors leaving, of course, that's been a main thing. When you don't have a doctor in a community, it does have a domino effect and our pharmacy has significantly suffered as a result of that.

“The third major difficulty was the 60-day dispensing policy. This policy that the government announced with no consultation to community pharmacy is such that it is reducing the cost of living for Australians, which is a great thing. But they've gone about it in a way that has meant that that funding that we have in our dispensary is drastically reduced, halved, in fact, which means that we cannot keep doing what we're doing and maintain viability.

“So the government made a promise that with this policy, no pharmacy and no community and no patient would be worse off as a result. But it just simply wasn't true.”

Ms Lindner said the only silver lining to the situation was the opportunity to merge with Mapleton Pharmacy. “As of the 31st of July, we will be joining with Mapleton Pharmacy to form a new pharmacy, Lindner Family Pharmacy. (This) will mean that we can be stronger together because we are both impacted in a way that by joining together, we can offset some of those costs and maintain viability. We do plan to have a delivery service back to the Montville area, and we are also planning to have a pickup points in the local IGA here because we want to encourage people to still come into Montville to do their regular shopping.”

Fisher MP Andrew Wallace said he and the community made appeals to Federal Health Minister Mark Butler. “Natalie along with the local Chamber of Commerce, worked really hard to keep this pharmacy viable by putting out a petition, which was to try and keep a doctor in Montville. Natalie secured 775 signatures on a petition, which I tabled in parliament. But those requests for Montville to have its own doctor fell on deaf ears by the Federal Labor Government.

Mr Wallace said the very people in rural and regional areas the government was trying to help by reducing the cost of pharmaceuticals were going to be the ones most affected by closures.

“I think it's important to recognize that it's one thing to try and ease the cost of living for everyday Australians. That might be okay in some respects in the city where there are multiple pharmacies in a small area. But not if, in so doing, you make it so economically unviable for community pharmacies (in rural and regional areas) to operate, that those community pharmacies have to close.

“If there's no pharmacy to actually dispense those medications, then clearly, those people are going to be adversely impacted upon and no one wins out of that.”

Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said the government was delivering cheaper medicines through the 60-day prescriptions for more than six million Australians.

“This will halve the cost of medicines for more than six million Australians, including pensioners, who are living with an ongoing health condition,” he said.

“Dispensing medicines is complex and critical, but it’s not the only reason Australian pharmacies are so highly valued.

“Every single dollar saved by the government will go back into pharmacy services, so pharmacists can play an even more central role in the healthcare of Australians.”