\u201cI think a lot of work we do is invisible, that has helped reduce pressures on the GP, but also reduced ED [emergency department] admissions because we were able to pick those things up early, because we have that relationship with our patients,\u201d Chan says.<\/p>\n
Wainuiomata pharmacist Clive Cannons says people can come in to ask for a free diagnosis of an ailment or treatment, but there is nothing to stop them going elsewhere to buy the medicine if they think they can get it cheaper online or at a discount pharmacy.<\/p>\n
He gets emotional when he talks about the threat to the 1000-odd community pharmacies around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very worried,\u201d says Cannons, chair of the community pharmacy group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost our local GPs, we\u2019ve lost those things that hold communities together and the last bastion is the local pharmacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He admits that not all local pharmacies offer a top-quality service and the sector needs to help itself to adjust to the growing competition from Chemist Warehouse and Bargain Chemist.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, there is a need for that high-service model where the owner knows their community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Cannons\u2019 group is calling for country-wide consistency in the way Health NZ grants contracts under the National Pharmacy Agreement.<\/p>\n
In his Hutt Valley region he says new pharmacies can only get an agreement if the local funders consider there is a need. In other regions, agreements are more accessible but that leads to oversupply.<\/p>\n
He calls Pukekohe, on the southern edge of Auckland, \u201cground zero\u201d. With a population of around 28,000, it has 13 pharmacies clustered in a high-volume area. Other parts of Auckland are also oversupplied, and many community pharmacies are struggling to break even.<\/p>\n
Cannons\u2019 group is also fighting industry deregulation proposals that would open up the pharmacies to non-pharmacists by removing the Effective Control Principles. Under those rules, pharmacies have to be more than 50 percent owned by pharmacists.<\/p>\n
The associate health minister Casey Costello says deregulation will enable different models for pharmacy ownership, \u201callowing for more innovative and integrated healthcare that will improve safe access to medicines\u201d.<\/p>\n
A supporter of deregulation, Dr Eric Crampton of the think tank NZ Initiative, wrote last year that the existing ownership rules protect pharmacies, calling it an \u201codd little regulatory cartel\u201d.<\/p>\n
He cited a Ministry of Health report that it has not seen any clear evidence that the ownership restrictions contribute to patient safety or service quality.<\/p>\n
Cannons disagrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe questions is, what do the people of New Zealand want? What sort of pharmacy industry does the man on the street want. If they want us to go like America then that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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