The Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild) is delighted that Health New Zealand (HNZ) has now agreed to funding changes to fully mitigate the financial impact of 12-month prescriptions for community pharmacy, following months of work by the Guild to resolve this for our members.
“This commitment will see pharmacies funded for 12-month prescriptions as if they were still delivering them under 3-month prescription pricing terms, ensuring pharmacies are not disadvantaged by this policy change and are able to continue providing essential medicine services to their communities”, says Guild Chief Executive Andrew Gaudin.
“We have been working intensely with key senior officials over recent months to address this and are thrilled to have finally managed to get this over the line for our members and the wider community pharmacy sector.
“We were determined not to let this issue go and have left no stone unturned, working with officials at multiple levels, providing analysis and advice, and engaging with the Minister of Health. It has taken considerable effort to finally get this issue sorted”, says Mr Gaudin.
The Guild’s work in achieving this change was repeatedly acknowledged by senior HNZ officials at yesterday’s Integrated Community Pharmacy Services Agreement (ICPSA) national annual agreement review (NAAR) meeting.
HNZ has also agreed that any additional dispensing resulting from this policy will not be funded from existing community pharmacy funding streams.
The Guild and other sector representatives will now work with HNZ to develop the detail and implement this commitment.