Pharmacist Leigh Houldsworth says she has had to turn away 20 customers before 10am because there was no medicine available to fill their scripts. 

That is because of a global medicine shortage driven by COVID-19.

"Sometimes a doctor can change it to something else but often they have to see a patient again to completely change the therapy," Ms Houldsworth said.

"It means we are ringing the GPs and hospital doctors all day because we don't have the medicine they are prescribing."

It makes servicing the health needs of a community of nearly 20,000 in the rural city of Mount Isa difficult.

So when the federal government announced in April that consumers would be able to purchase a 60-day supply of 320 medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from September 1, rather than the current 30-day supply, Ms Houldsworth panicked.

The supply chain of medication to rural communities is significantly hampered by the tyranny of distance and means bush chemists often find themselves in a "hunger games" scenario with city pharmacies when trying to source in-demand drugs.

"We have been given barely any time to prepare for the biggest change to the PBS in its history and are working around the clock to come up with solutions … but it looks like we are out of them."

New report backs up pharmacists' concerns

Ms Houldsworth's fears have been echoed in a new report titled 60-day dispensing: An analysis of likely impacts and key policy issues by economist Professor Henry Ergas and Griffith University, commissioned by The Pharmacy Guild.

The report claims 665 pharmacies would close and another 900 would be at serious risk while 20,000 jobs would be lost due to the 60-day dispensing scheme.

The sector would suffer a loss of $4.5 billion over four years due to a decline in dispensing fees and loss of other revenue from retail sales and customer foot traffic, the report claimed.

"This will … disproportionately impact vulnerable communities, such as those in regional and remote Australia … and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples," the report stated.

Ms Houldsworth said she feared for residents in rural and regional communities like hers who would be hardest hit, not only by anticipated medicine shortages but by the flow-on financial losses that would be incurred by bush chemists.

Shortages claims 'rubbish'

Several experts and ministers have dismissed claims that the change would cause shortages.

Stephen Duckett, a health economist and emeritus professor at RMIT, described the idea as "complete rubbish", telling the ABC that increasing the limit was: "Not going to increase the number of drugs dispensed; it's going to change how often they are dispensed."