5. Facility requirements

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Requirements of the Pharmacy Location Rules

5. Facility requirements

These requirements only apply to the following types of application:

Rule 109: relocation to small shopping centre;

Rule 110: relocation to large shopping centre;

Rule 111: relocation to private hospital; and

Rule 112: relocation to large medical centre.

The ACPA must be satisfied that the facility meets the relevant requirements.

5.1 Small shopping centre

For Rule 109: relocation to small shopping centre, an application must demonstrate that the proposed premises are situated within a shopping centre that:

is a group of shops and associated facilities that is under single management;
has a gross leasable area of at least 5,000 m²;
contains a supermarket that occupies at least 2,500 m²;
contains at least 15 other commercial establishments; and
has customer parking facilities.

See paragraph 5.3 for information about single management and paragraph 5.4 for information about commercial establishments.

The application must also demonstrate that the small shopping centre does not already contain an approved pharmacy.
See item 109, Part 1, Schedule 1
See also paragraph 6(1), 6(3) & 7
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5.2 Large shopping centre

For Rule 110: relocation to large shopping centre, an application must demonstrate that the proposed premises are situated within a shopping centre that:

is a group of shops and associated facilities that is under single management;
has a gross leasable area of at least 5,000 m²;
contains a supermarket that occupies at least 1,000 m²;
contains at least 30 other commercial establishments; and
has customer parking facilities.

The pharmacy location rules define a "supermarket" as a retail store or market that, as its primary business, sells a range of food, beverages, groceries and other domestic goods. It is intended that this means the type of business to which a person could go to obtain their regular grocery needs, that is, the family shopping.

See paragraph 5.3 for information about single management and paragraph 5.4 for information about commercial establishments.

Depending on whether the application is for the 1st, 2nd or 3rd pharmacy in the large shopping centre, an application must also demonstrate one of the following:

the centre does not contain an approved pharmacy; or
if the centre contains no more than one approved pharmacy, there are at least 100 but not more that 199 other commercial establishments in the centre (including the proposed premises); or
if the centre contains no more than two approved pharmacies, there are at least 200 other commercial establishments in the centre (including the proposed premises).

See item 110, Part 1, Schedule 1
See also paragraph 6(1), 6(3) & 7

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5.3 Single management

The pharmacy location rules provide that single management means the management of a shopping centre or medical centre as a whole by a single manager, or a number of managers working in cooperation under an agreement, for the purpose of facilitating customer use of the centre as a single integrated facility. It includes managing the security, pedestrian and vehicular access, cleaning, signage, trading hours, marketing and maintenance of buildings, common areas and utilities, for the centre.

Single management does not include a number of independent owners or tenants that cooperate only on particular occasions or only in relation to some (not all) of the matters described above. For example, a group of shop owners in a shopping arcade might only cooperatively manage the promotion of the arcade over the Christmas shopping period or they may cooperatively manage the arrangements for cleaning and maintenance of the arcade, however, each owner individually manages the marketing and trading hours of their own shop. In these circumstances, the requirement of single management would not be met.
See paragraph 6(1)

5.4 Commercial establishments

The pharmacy location rules define a "commercial establishment" as premises occupied by, or likely to be occupied by:

a shop where goods, food or beverages are sold retail; or
a bar, café, restaurant or takeaway; or
a business that provides services to customers.

The pharmacy location rules further specify that a "commercial establishment" does not include the following businesses:

commercial office space; or
premises occupied by an accountant, analyst, architect, engineer, lawyer, planner, real estate agent, stockbroker or surveyor; or
premises occupied by an insurance company, insurance agent or broker, unless the premises are occupied as a shopfront for an insurance company; or
a council office or government or statutory corporation office or shopfront, other than an Australia Post or Australian Broadcasting Corporation shop or a Medicare shopfront; or
a library; or
a kindergarten or preschool; or
a child care centre or child minding facility, unless the centre or facility is regularly available for use by customers of the shopping centre while the customers are at the shopping centre; or
a storeroom or storage area; or
a temporary selling point; or
an automatic teller machine or automatic dispensing machine.

An application does not need to demonstrate that the requisite number of commercial establishments are operating within the relevant shopping centre, however it must demonstrate that the shopping centre will contain the requisite number of commercial establishments.

Evidence addressing the number of commercial establishments within a shopping centre might include a tenancy schedule provided by the centre management that indicates which businesses are or will be occupying which shops. If any of the commercial establishments are not yet trading, the ACPA must be satisfied that the commercial establishments are likely to begin trading. In this case, applications should include evidence which demonstrates that those businesses have made some form of commitment that their businesses will operate within the shopping centre (e.g. signed leases).
See paragraph 6(3) and 7

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5.5 Private hospital

For Rule 111: relocation to private hospital, an application must demonstrate that the proposed premises are situated within a private hospital:

that does not contain an approved pharmacy; and
where the hospital authority is not approved under section 94 of the Act (i.e. approved to supply pharmaceutical benefits to patients receiving treatment in or at that hospital); and
that is registered/licensed under the relevant State or Territory law:

to contain at least 150 beds for the purpose of providing health services to patients; or
to treat, accommodate or lodge at least 150 patients at any one time.

For the purpose of the pharmacy location rules, a private hospital has the same meaning as in the Health Insurance Act 1973. Applicants that are unsure whether the relevant private hospital meets this definition should contact the governing authority of the hospital.
See item 111, Part 1, Schedule 1
See also paragraph 6(1)

5.6 Large medical centre

For Rule 112: relocation to large medical centre, an application must demonstrate that the proposed premises are situated within a medical centre that:

is under single management;
operates for at least 55 hours per week; and
on the date of application and for the preceding six months, the equivalent of at least eight full-time prescribing medical practitioners have been practising at that centre.

The pharmacy location rules define a prescribing medical practitioner as a medical practitioner that is licensed/registered under the relevant State or Territory law, that is supplying general practice services to the community and is authorised to issue prescriptions for pharmaceutical benefits.

The pharmacy location rules do not specify what constitutes the equivalent of full-time so the ACPA have some flexibility in considering this. It may include a number of part-time medical practitioners that, together, provide the same level of service that a full-time medical practitioner provides. Alternatively, a single medical practitioner may provide the same level of service that more than one full-time medical practitioner provides.

Evidence addressing this requirement may include a statement or statutory declaration from the management of the medical centre regarding the hours that the centre operates and the hours that each medical practitioner practises, copies of any advertisements regarding the hours that the practice operates, a practice information sheet and the provider numbers for the medical practitioners.

See paragraph 5.3 for information about single management.
See item 112, Part 1, Schedule 1
See also paragraph 6(1)

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5.7 Meeting the needs of medical centre patients

For Rule 112: relocation to large medical centre, the ACPA must be satisfied that the applicant will make all reasonable attempts to ensure that the operating hours of the proposed pharmacy will meet the needs of the patients of the medical centre.

The intention of this provision is to ensure that, as far as is practicable, a majority of patients can access the pharmacy following a consultation by a doctor in that medical centre.

Evidence addressing this requirement might include evidence of an agreement between
the applicant and the management of the medical centre which indicates that the proposed pharmacy’s hours will largely reflect those of the medical centre, or that the applicant will endeavour to open the pharmacy outside of normal hours if there is sufficient need.
See item 112, Part 1, Schedule 1

5.8 Proposed premises within same shopping centre or private hospital

For Rule 101: relocation within shopping centre or private hospital, the proposed premises must be within the same small or large shopping centre or private hospital in which the existing premises are situated.

Evidence addressing this might include a layout plan of the centre or hospital indicating the locations of the existing and proposed premises, or a statement by the management confirming that the existing and proposed premises are within the same facility.

If the shopping centre or private hospital has changed its name since the existing premises were approved, an application should include evidence of the name change.

Rule 101 also requires that the existing approval was granted in the manner prescribed. That is, it was granted following a recommendation by the ACPA in accordance with:

item 109, 110 or 111 of Determination No. PB 23 of 2006;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 8 of 2006;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 8 of 2000;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 13 of 1998;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 13 of 1997;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 21 of 1996;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 18 of 1995;
section 7 of Determination No. PB 6 of 1995;
paragraph 3 (eaa) or (eab) of Determination No. PB 8 of 1993; or
paragraph 3 (eaa) or (eab) of Determination No. PB 6 of 1993.

If the approval has been granted following a change of ownership or an expansion or contraction of pharmacy premises, the previous approval must have been granted in the manner described above.

Evidence addressing this might include advice from the Secretary at the time the approval was originally granted within that shopping centre or private hospital, which states the rule under which the ACPA recommended approval.
See item 101, Part 1, Schedule 1

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