Australian Community Pharmacy Authority Applicant's Handbook

Rule 107: Relocation to rural locality (additional pharmacy)

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Policy intent

This rule aims to address community need for additional pharmacy services in single pharmacy towns which have a population sufficient to ensure the viability of a second pharmacy and in which PBS prescriptions are being generated, while promoting a level of competition between the pharmacies.

Requirements

An application made under this rule must meet the requirements listed below.

Please note that it is important to clearly identify the proposed premises that are the subject of an application.

• The applicant has a legal right to occupy the proposed premises
• The proposed premises can be used for the purpose of operating a pharmacy
• The applicant will be ready to operate a pharmacy at the proposed premises within six months
• The proposed premises are not directly accessible by the public from within a supermarket
• The proposed premises are situated in a rural locality
• The proposed premises are at least 200 m, by straight line, from the nearest approved pharmacy
• The catchment area for the proposed premises contains:

1. only one approved pharmacy;
2. a resident population of at least 8,000 for most of the year; and
3. the equivalent of at least four full-time prescribing general practitioners practising in catchment area

• The existing approved pharmacy in the catchment area has not, in the past three years, been involved in an amalgamation with another pharmacy that had previously been approved in that rural locality, unless it occurred on or after 1 July 2006)
• An approval has been in force at the existing premises for at least two years or the application is of the type set out in the prescribed exceptions
• If the approval was originally granted under the rule associated with a new rural approval (under the current or previous rules), then the proposed premises are situated in the same rural locality
• If the existing approval was originally granted under the rule associated with a new approval (urban locality) or new approval (general) within the last five years, then the proposed premises are not more than 1.5 km, by straight line, from the original premises

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