Extended ordering hours for community pharmacy

Friday 15 July

Community pharmacists will have extended ordering hours for the supply of Pfizer medicines under new improvements announced today.

From Monday 18 July the following ordering times will apply:

• The cut off time for electronic orders is extended from 1pm to 3pm (local time), Monday to Friday, for next business day delivery.
• The cut off time for telephone/faxed orders is extended from 1pm to 2pm (local time), Monday to Friday, for next business day delivery.
• The cut off time for orders from the critical products list is also extended to 3pm (local time) for next business day delivery. These orders are placed via the Customer Service team on 1800 999 543.

John Latham, Pfizer Australia Chairman and Managing Director, said the changes reflected pharmacy feedback and discussions with the Pharmacy Guild.

“Extended ordering times will help pharmacists manage their ordering arrangements,” Mr Latham said.

“Our goal is to deliver our medicines in a timely and reliable manner so that they reach Australian consumers where and when they need them. We are working with the Pharmacy Guild to ensure appropriate standards are upheld. Our deed of agreement with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia sets very similar rigorous standards to those outlined in the Community Service Obligation (CSO). The joint Guild/Pfizer Monitoring committee reviews all formal complaints.”

Mr Latham said that in its first five months of operation, Pfizer Direct had filled close to 220,000 orders. “More than 99.5% of these orders have been delivered in full and on time. We have also filled more than 5,500 urgent orders, which are dispatched on an urgent basis, and free of charge,” Mr Latham said.

“We have more than 50 critical medicines which are delivered on the same day, free of charge. We also regularly air freight our medicines to rural and remote pharmacies, at no additional cost to them.

“From Day 1 we have responded to customer feedback, and we continue to make ongoing enhancements to our processes. We improved cold chain deliveries based on pharmacy feedback. We opened a new distribution centre in Hobart. We suspended delivery fees for the first two months to allow pharmacies to get used to the new system. We also increased customer service staff to answer pharmacy queries.”

Mr Latham said Pfizer remained committed to the supply of its own medicines in Australia.

“We do not seek to become a full line wholesaler and we are not claiming any of the government’s CSO of close to $200million which is paid to wholesalers to subsidise their costs. Despite this we guarantee next business day delivery for all but 17 remote pharmacies in Australia.”