As a pensioner receiving discount on Generic medication it is very confusing when a repeat is needed, pharmacies change the name of the medication monthly which means a different colour and size of the tablets. Lucky that I don’t take too many tablets but I think that for older patients it is very confusing to decipher the correct one. We are pressured into taking whatever the pharmacy stock was issued with at that particular month.
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One can always ask a pharmacy to use Webster packs for daily self dispensing… to reduce likelihood of confusion, especially if shape and colour changes regularly through the pharmacy changing generic medication suppliers.
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Here is an image of the Webster-pak alomg with information about them.
http://www.webstercare.com.au/shop/item/community-webster-pak
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Those kinds of packs are fantastic and commonly used in aged care. For an individual the main gotcha is when you have some meds with 30 days supplies and some with 28 days. It gets a bit tedious for a pharmacy to keep the packs and scripts in synch, especially if there are not ‘scripts in waiting’ during the last month when they are out of synch.
Yet another reason it should be but is not mandated that all long term meds are supplied in a common month, be it 28 days or 30 days. Does that make it impossible to use packs? Not at all, but it makes it harder and more tedious than it should and could dissuade providers or have extra costs.
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Unless and until medication packs are standardised at either 28 or 30, it would seem much easier for the pharmacy to simply dispose of the remaing 2 tablets in a 30 pack when dispensing them in combination with a 28 pack.
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Write of consciously throwing money away ? 
Packs are actually a good reason they should be dispensed in 28’s… do I think if they changed from 30 to 28 per script pack the price would go down? Really? 
So my comment was not meant to be answered excepting that disposing of extra pills is a special kind of waste leading to other issues, especially when potentially done in volume.
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I have only seen the 14 day packs. I have asked in the past (for an elderly person I help out), what happens to the remaining medicines where the pack is not exactly the same number as the webster packs. The pharmacist indicated that they are stored and used for any webster packs not necessarily that of the one customer. The customer only pays for the medicines dispensed (14 pills pro rata) rather than the packaging size.
Maybe different pharmacist do things differently and worth asking.
Edit: maybe those such as pensioners and those who reached the medicare cap would pay the same for the medications irrespective of the amount dispensed.
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When the pharmacy produce the Webster packs they do so from the scripts they have, any unused medication is then saved for the next pack. All medications that can be put in packs have decent expiry periods far in excess of the pack usage period. Most Chemists when doing this also keep the scripts on file and order new ones as needed from the customer’s GP. We have been using this service for about the last 3 years with no issues, we prefer the rolls to the pack as we can take the packets off the roll as needed eg if going out for dinner or a date.
There are some drugs eg Eutroxsig (Thyroid medication) that need to be kept cool and dry and so are not always well suited to packs (they can be used but frig storage is recommended), others because they are controlled substances are generally dispensed separately to the packs as well.
Even if generics are used they are clearly identified as to their components on the individual packets and are described as to their appearance as well.
Cost of a pack is around the cost of another script per week to a user of the packs but you can negotiate the cost with your pharmacy as they may be happy to cover some or all of that extra cost themselves.
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If a pensioner, Senior Card holder, DVA card or Health Care Card holder reaches the level required for the concessional holder Safety Net in a calendar year, then any medication under the PBS scheme is free (other than the premium for some branded medications). A non card holder who reaches the non concessional card holder Safety Net is then only made to pay the normal concessional rate for the rest of the year. Currently the rates as from 1 January 2019, you pay up to $40.30 for most PBS medicines or $6.50 if you have a concession card.
Safety Net: On 1 January 2019, the Safety Net thresholds changed from $384.00 to $390.00 (for concession card holders) and from $1,521.80 to $1,550.70 (for all other patients).
Your Chemist may also reduce the cost of any medicine under PBS by a maximum of $1 from the set fees above. This will increase the amount of time it takes to reach your Safety Net limit.
Under CTG (Close The Gap) ATSI users if not on concessional cards generally only have to pay the normal concessional amount for scripts ie $6.50, if they also hold a concession card this amount is reduced to $0.00. If part of a family for Safety Net purposes even with the $0.00 cost the amount of $6.50 is added to the safety net amount for each script to receive the extra concessional benefits ie if the Safety Net limit is the $390.00 one for your family then each “free” script will count as $6.50 for the purposes of reaching that limit, if it the $1,550 limit then it counts as $6.50 towards reaching that limit.
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