Its chief executive Rachael Newfield told RNZ the workforce had untapped potential.
“We have this pharmacy workforce, and these thousand pharmacies around New Zealand that can help, and they’re staffed by people who want to help. So we’re asking to let them help.”
Newfield said pharmacists in comparable countries overseas already co-managed stable chronic conditions like hypertension, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.
Funding would need to increase to account for the extra work, she said, but change could be brought about “very quickly”.
That included funded treatments for children with mild dermatitis, skin infections, and oral thrush, as well as vaginal thrush and more oral contraceptives (for the cost of a prescription fee, rather than full-price).
Newfield explained another change that would save pharmacists time was to adjust the way pills were supplied.
She explained the current system involved pharmacists having to sort through the bulk supplies procured by Pharmac and distributed to chemists, to match up exactly what was prescribed by doctors.
She said it would save a lot of time if pills were distributed in packages that matched typical treatment plans.
“In Australia, they have what we call ‘original pack dispensing’, which is, the doctor prescribes in a quantity aligned with what the Pharmac equivalent is purchasing.
“It’s not always aligned … but for all the common medications, the supply chains align to buy the amount that matches what the patient will take.”
Increasing funding, as well as making the scope of the job broader and easier to do, would allow pharmacists to become the “front door of the health system”, Newfield said, “freeing up GPs, taking pressure off emergency departments, and getting people the care they need, faster and closer to home”.