The impact on community pharmacy of the changing generic medicine substitution landscape

The Australian generic medicine substitution landscape has changed over recent years. The latest changes include the introduction of incentive payments by the government to community pharmacists to dispense generic medicines instead of more expensive brand equivalents. Generic dispensing imposes additional time constraints on pharmacists in terms of patient counselling requirements. Substitution also involves an increased need for professional judgment as pharmacists need to ensure the substitution is appropriate for the patient. It is therefore important that pharmacists develop processes and procedures that enable staff to follow good practice standards and guidelines during the dispensing of generic medicines in order to minimise patient risk.