Parkvale Pharmacy cheapest?

CHRIS GARDNER
Parkvale Pharmacy, in Hastings, could be the cheapest pharmacy in Hawke's Bay, charging up to two-thirds less for prescriptions than most pharmacies.
Responding to reports of a pricing discrepancy among four Napier pharmacies, Hawke's Bay Today rang 15 pharmacies across the region to find out what they would charge for a common antibiotic. An unnamed woman paid $15 for 13 500mg amoxycillin trihydrate tablets at Deco City Pharmacy in Emerson Street, Napier, just days after paying $7.10 for exactly the same drug at the Odeon Pharmacy in Hastings Street, Napier. She did not have a community services card.
The ring-around, in which a reporter inquired about prices for a middle-aged person without a community services card, revealed Parkvale Pharmacy would charge only $5 for the same medicine.
The average script charge for amoxycillin trihydrate was $12.55, leaving Parkvale, the Odeon, Tamatea Pharmacy ($8.40) and Gahagans Unichem ($8.85) offering the drugs for below the average price. Flaxmere Pharmacy was only 10c above the average, charging $12.65, while Greenmeadows Pharmacy charged $12.70, Mahora Pharmacy between $12 and $15, which works out at $13.50 on average and Wairoa Pharmacy charging a maximum of $15.
A patient with a community services card would pay $3 for the same script. Odeon pharmacist Heather Williams said if drugs, such as amoxycillin trihydrate that were not subsidised by Pharmac, cost less than $15 pharmacies were free to set the pricing at whatever levels they chose.
"If it was worth $100 the patient would pay $15 and Pharmac would pay $85," Mrs Williams said. In this case amoxycillin trihydrate is worth $7.10 (including a small mark-up and dispensing fee) and I don't believe it is fair to charge the patient the full $15."
Patients often commented on the higher prices elsewhere, but pharmacies who charged $15 were within their legal rights to do so. Parkvale pharmacist Paul Messerschmidt, who is also chairman of the HB Pharmacy Group, was unavailable for comment.
Chairman of the national Pharmacy Guild, Murray Burns, said pharmacies were able to set a price, and he advised people to shop around.