Pharmacy Continence Care - Bladder and Bowel Website

period with a national recruitment and participation target of 1000 community pharmacies,
covering all metropolitan areas, all regional centres, and rural and remote communities.
5.1.3 Funding of the Program
Stage 1 of the program was funded by the Australian Government under the National
Continence Management Strategy. Stage 2 projects of the PCCP were funded by the
Australian Government under the Third Community Pharmacy Agreement Research and
Development programs. As research and pilot projects, the cost per pharmacy of the
Program to date is substantial. The two projects have provided the complement of evidencebased
training materials, evaluated training methods, and pharmacy and consumer benefit
measures, and these are now capable of continuing use at production and distribution costs
only. All materials except the flip chart are available for download from the internet.
The outcome of the pilot Program indicates that funding requirements for the Program to
continue on a national roll-out basis would primarily reflect the cost of materials and groupbased
training. Table 3 indicates the cost per unit of each of the pilot-evaluated materials
and of group-based training. Self-paced training incurs no cost to the Program other than
Program administration. Table 3 also provides costings for delivery of the Program assuming
1000 units (materials and individuals trained).
Implementation of the Program is proposed as a two-year trial. For the purposes of
identifying the cost of a national roll-out, the project team has used a target participation
rate of up to 1000 staff of community pharmacies across Australia. The funding requirement
to achieve national roll-out with this goal comprises:
• material and resource provision: $52,800 (inc GST)
• group-based training to a maximum of 1000 individual participants: $220,000
• Program administration: $200,200.
Therefore, the Program total funding requirement, assuming a target participation rate of
1000 individual participants, is $473,000 over two years. A contingency factor is
recommended, at 7-10 per cent of total cost, which would result in a full Program provision
of $530,000, assuming participation of 1000 pharmacy staff through the two year Program.
As discussed, funding options include full funding by government through an appropriate
program, or user-pays for participating pharmacies. The Program could be fully funded by
government through the National Continence Management Strategy or its successor. Full
cost recovery would require a fee for participation, training and review of $530 per
participating pharmacy. The incurred cost (staff time) per pharmacy of participating in the
training was reported (see Section 4.2.8) at an average of $150, making the full cost of
participation in the Program for each pharmacy a total of $680.
Final Report
50
NOVA Public Policy
Pharmacy Continence Care Project