For the first time, Dubbo pharmacies can apply for funding from a reformed program which aims to keep essential medicines on their shelves and help them expand services.
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Subsidies from the federal government's Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance program start at $3000 and scale up to more than $50,000 depending on the location of applicants and their throughput.
About 400 more pharmacies are able to apply for the subsidies because the program has adopted the Modified Monash Model for classifying locations.
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Regional Health Minister and Parkes MP Mark Coulton announced Dubbo's inclusion in the program from Orana Mall Pharmacy last week.
"There is a lot of focus on getting GPs and generalists into regional areas," he said.
"There's no good having the doctors if you haven't got pharmacy there to supply the other half of the service you need."
The minister said changes to the program were a key outcome of the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement signed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in June 2020.
The government has boosted its investment in the program from $16 million to $21 million a year under the agreement.
Across regional Australia, the program will now benefit more than 1200 pharmacies.
Co-owner of Orana Mall Pharmacy and president of the guild's ACT branch, Simon Blacker, welcomed the substantial increase in funding and the planned growth in subsidy recipients in regional, rural and remote Australia.
"This means they can provide more services to patients in these areas which at times may have been left at a disadvantage compared with urban pharmacies," he said.
Mr Blacker said the extra funding would allow pharmacies, regardless of their location, to improve the "health outcomes in local communities".
