The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild) does not support calls made by some interested parties to extend funding for the Comprehensive Primary and Community Care Team (CPCT) initiative.
Funding for this 2022 Budget initiative, which includes clinical pharmacists employed as part of an interdisciplinary team within general practice, is due to end in June.
“We have never supported the CPCT initiative because HNZ’s approach to employing additional frontline pharmacist staff for roles in general practice is a conceptually flawed procurement approach,” says Guild Chief Executive Andrew Gaudin.
“We have always advocated that HNZ should instead be focused on commissioning new service models that best meet service needs to improve health outcomes, rather than employing additional staff in general practice settings. We believe HNZ should be funding services, such as best use of medicines, and allowing service providers, including community pharmacies, to contract directly to provide this service.
“We do not support the current HNZ procurement model for the CPCT scheme which requires general practices to directly employ a pharmacist. This approach has created a significant avoidable workforce risk for already understaffed community pharmacies, with pharmacists incentivised to move into general practice roles. This risks fragmenting the continuity of care and service quality for patients accessing community pharmacy services.
“We successfully advocated against this initiative with the current government. We are pleased that the government listened to our concerns prior to Budget 2024 when deciding to stop funding the CPCT scheme from June, and to return $26.1 million of savings from this scheme for improved ‘value for money’ investment elsewhere in our health system.
“We will continue advocating against this initiative, to ensure the community pharmacy workforce, and our patients, are not negatively impacted by a flawed procurement approach of employing staff, instead of buying services,” says Mr Gaudin.