We have worked intensely with key senior officials to resolve this issue since the government’s policy decision in May 2025. This has included working with officials at multiple levels and providing robust analysis and advice on the consequences of the adverse impacts on community pharmacy fees, financial viability and patient safety.
We have never deviated from our originally advised position from October 2024 that this change would have financial impacts for pharmacies that must be addressed. Our work has progressed with an unrelenting determination to leave no stone unturned to ensure community pharmacy would not be financially disadvantaged because of this new policy.
Initially, our work focused on issuing an Official Information Act (OIA) request in June to seek to better understand the policy intention and impacts for community pharmacy, followed by a complaint to the Ombudsman in July when the response to this request was unsatisfactory. We subsequently discovered the Regulatory Impact Statement on this policy decision in late September and were shocked to learn then that there was a clear policy intent for community pharmacy to receive significantly less funding for doing the same work when dispensing a 12-month prescription.
This was followed by us advising HNZ in September that there was universal support from NAAR provider representatives for our position to only progress the ICPSA voluntary variation after the 12-month prescription impacts were fully mitigated for community pharmacy. This was also a key point raised in our letter to the HNZ Chief Executive in October as part of the NAAR contested advice process.
While NAAR meetings were taking place and the contested advice process was playing out, we continued working with key senior officials to secure funding to solve this key issue.
Because of the stalemate in agreeing a solution, we made the decision to again engage with the Minister of Health. We are delighted that this final action and our resulting round of subsequent meetings with senior officials led to HNZ agreeing to funding changes to ensure community pharmacies aren’t disadvantaged by the move to 12-month prescriptions.