Pressure is building on the Federal Government to provide free rapid antigen tests (RATs) with Professional Pharmacists Australia joining with the Federal Opposition to call for free and available access to the tests.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Professional Pharmacists Australia - representing employee pharmacists around the nation - are calling for rapid Federal Government intervention as cases numbers continue to grow.
"We're calling on the Federal Government to act urgently and provide the tests free to all given the surge in cases and the change in testing regimes," CEO of Professional Pharmacists Australia Jill McCabe said.
"We should be protecting the health and safety of all workers and their families, not just those who can afford to buy the tests," she said.
RATs cost upwards of $20 per test, costing a family of five a minimum of $100 to get tested once. President of Professional Pharmacists Australia Geoff March said this cost barrier inhibits the people who need RATs from using them.
"Most Australians find the cost of testing their family prohibitive - if they're able to find testing kits at all," he said.
Mr March said people's access to RATs should not be dependent on how much they earn and can afford to pay.
"Employee pharmacists are on the frontline of this issue, constantly running out of supply and seeing the look on people's faces when they struggle to pay for tests," Mr March said.
RAT kits are in high demand across the Eurobodalla, with pharmacies having run out of stock with little certainty when their next order will arrive, and residents experiencing long wait time for PCR test results.
Mr March said the financial strain forcing prices up will only increase as more workers need RATs before entering their workplace.
Federal Member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips also slammed Scott Morrison for not making rapid antigen tests freely available, claiming it is essential the region's workers and vulnerable people have access to them.
"They should absolutely be available to people," Ms Phillips said. "People who can't afford them should be able to get them for free."
"We've got a lot of elderly people (in Gilmore) and there will be a lot of need for the kits.
"Anthony Albanese has come out saying that people who can't afford RATs should be able to have them for free and this is something I will continue to advocate for," Ms Phillips said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has so far resisted pressure to make rapid antigen tests freely available despite Omicron cases continuing to spread across the nation.
On Monday, January 3, Mr Morrison said the rapid tests would not be made free to the public, except for identified close contacts. Anyone else will have to pay full price to test themselves at home.
"We've invested hundreds of billions of dollars getting Australia through this crisis," he said.
"We're now in a stage of the pandemic where you can't just go around making everything free.
"When someone tells you they want to make something free, someone's always going to pay for it, and it's going to be you."
Ms Phillips said the federal government has had months to prepare for securing testing kits.
"This should have been part of the options they were exploring and actually getting more RAT kits in and coming up with a plan to make them available for people," she said.