April 15, 2026 • 9 mins
The Government's looking to level the playing field for pharmacies and ease pressure on GPs.
Consultation's open on allowing pharmacists to dispense funded medication for pain and fever, scabies, lice, conjunctivitis, UTIs, and the emergency contraceptive pill.
Kiwis currently have to pay the medication's full pharmacy price, or obtain a GP prescription.
ACT Leader David Seymour joined the Afternoons team to explain that it's important health professionals are informed in giving people medicine - and this move will be better for pharmacies.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Pharmacists could soon take on a bigger role in New
Zealand's healthcare, prescribing some funded medicines without patients needing to
see a doctor first. But just how far could that
purview be extended in time? Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
in charge of FARMAC David Seymour is with US Afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
David, Good, afternoon.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
So I'm confused here, David, and I blame Tyler. I
think he buncher the description of what's going on. Yeah,
So can you explain exactly what's going on here or
what's been eased up, what's available, what pharmacists can be
able to do here?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Well, I hope there's two discussions. Let's answer that question
about what's happening right now and hopefully we can talk
a bit about what might happen. What's happening right now
for sure is that there are seven different treatments or
conditions which FARMAC currently funds medicines for if they are
prescribed by a doctor. FARMAK is reviewing its funding so
(01:12):
that by June you'll be able to go to a pharmacist,
they'll be able to prescribe, and it will be funded
off what's called the combined pharmaceutical budget, so basically five
dollars for most people free if you have a community
services car. That's a change that means that there'll be
more incentive to go to a pharmacist for minor ailments.
(01:34):
They're mainly things for children. We're talking head liice, scabies,
oral dehydration, fever pain, those sorts of things. What could
happen in the future that I think it could go further?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well, why have we been involving GPS and prescribing life
scabies and conjunctive idis medicine? You know, you know, if
you've got those, you probably don't need a pharmacist even
to tell you that your kid's got nits.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You're probably not. But you've got to remember that the
prescribing of actual medication does have to be done by
someone that knows what they're doing, because it's not just
do you have thing, but what might be the side
effects of the treatment, So you can understand why there
has to be a health professional involved.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Read the package.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
The other hand, Yeah, I mean, look, you know there's
a view there that I'm not entirely opposed to, but
you know, we've got to just satisfy people on both
ends of the spectrum here, and so most people would
want to know that if they're having a medicine prescribe,
then you know it's been done by someone who can
look at, well, what other treatments are you on, how
(02:35):
might they interact? What conditions do you have other than
what's being treated right now, what might be the side effects?
I mean, you don't have to be a medical expert
to see that there's quite a lot more that can
happen just than reading the packet.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
What does this primarily solve or holp? Is it GP workloads,
cost for customers or helping keeping you know, rural pharmacies
and business and such.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, it's actually all three of those things. So we've
got this fantastic network of community pharmacies that are mostly
actually small businesses, and for as long as I've been
a local MP visiting them, I've heard that they're getting
hammered and a lot have actually shut down, which is
a real loss. So it actually creates more business for
them to keep that network afloat, because it really makes
(03:19):
a big difference for people the more we use it
and the longer it's there. Number two massive problems worth
getting into GPS, which everybody knows about. It's one of
the things that I hear about the most from people saying, look,
you know it can be three weeks and it's still expensive.
So if you can find a way to get some
of the workload that other people can handle off that,
(03:39):
then that's a win win. And then you think about
people with children that are not well and they've got
a ways and it's just a hell of a time
if you have a sick child. So this creates more
opportunity for them and less expense. So you know, it's
a win win win, And I think that in the
future there could be a lot more of this. I
mean ten years ago people say, oh, I don't know
(04:00):
if pharmacists could do immunizations. Now most vaccination or immunization
is actually done by pharmacists. This move that Sime and Brown,
the Health Minister, and I announced yesterday, this is just
a few more things you can get done at a pharmacy.
But I think we could go further and move to
a model where for a lot of conditions, you know
(04:22):
that the pharmacist is the healthcare professional nearest to you,
and it's all about making maximum use of every single
health professional, making sure if they can do something, then
they're available and empowered to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What would be some of those conditions, Minister you mentioned
on with Mike this morning. Melanoma checks for example, could
be a good place to start. But what other medicines
could come under that purview?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, people talk to me about things like what if
you need to get monitoring and check ups for things
like heart rates. You know, I've visited pharmacies just in
recent times. If you look at good old Timya out
at the Henderson Pharmacy there, she's a real innovator. She's
got an interview room almost like a doctor says, you're
(05:07):
out the back, and she's doing things like, you know,
taking temperature. You can imagine taking bloods the way a
nurse does at a GP. Sorry I didn't mean so temperature,
I said heart condition. So you can imagine more diagnostic
stuff I mentioned checks for skin cancer. This is something
that's usually done or can be done at least by
(05:30):
some sort of technician with the right scanning equipment. You
could imagine maybe going to a pharmacy to do that,
and every one of these procedures that you take out
of GP clinics, out of emergency departments where people sometimes
go if they can't get to their GP, makes the
whole system more efficient from the government's point of view,
but more convenient from the patient's point of view.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean, pharmacists are smart people. It's not easy
to get a pharmacy degree. And you know, we all
know we will look over our GPS shoulder and see
them googlingling what you're going to give us. Anyway, where
would the clinical line be for you? You, David though
we were at the end because I mean, because there's
probably things maybe antidepressants is probably don't want them being
(06:13):
handed out on.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
A tramodole codeine.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah. I mean, obviously there's going to be a line
that we're comfortable with, but I would just observe. In
New Zealand, I think the line is a bit sort
of tight around what has to be done by a
GP or at a hospital in an ED, and we're
less permissive about pharmacist nurse practition as physician assistants and
so on. I always remember a story I had a
(06:39):
partner in Canada when I lived there years ago, and
she'd say, I'm going to my nurse practitioner, and I thought, man,
what a third world country. Why don't you go to
a doctor like we do in New Zealand. Now, upon
returning home and thinking about it a bit, I think
she had a point because you know, here we tend
to rely on GPS and hospitals to do a lot
(07:00):
of stuff that could be done elsewhere. So really, who
is the more sophisticated country? I would argue it's them.
And I'm not saying that, you know, there's all going
to be some stuff you can only get done by
a doctor, of course, but I think, not based on politics,
but based on real clinical evidence, we can probably get
a bit more bang for buck out of the health
professionals we have. And if you look at the forecast
(07:21):
for an aging population, you know, a sea of red
ink and deficits and healthcare. We're going to have to
start doing stuff smarter.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Is there a potential problem with you know, fragmentation of
care and record keeping? You know, if someone's getting this here,
you know one of the things GPS keep good records
and share their records, right, So is that that a
potential problem. You've got this from the pharmacy, but that
when you actually go into I know, you rush to emergency,
(07:49):
there's no information around that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think that's a big problem that we have to
solve anyway. I'll give you another example. Tell me telling
too many of these stories. But I was at the
wake out of hospital emergency department once and they've been
showing me around telling me what they did. And they
explain to me. They said, look, if you were in
a car creation Hamilton, because you're in Auckland, we would
(08:14):
have to email Auckland for your medical records. And I'm
like what you Meanwhile, I'm bleeding out on a table.
They're like yeah, And I said, but hang on a minute.
Didn't the Labor government merge all the DHBs into one?
They said, no, No, that was just the letterheads that
the ITT system is not actually integrated. We're now doing that.
We're getting much better, and we have to do that anyway.
(08:36):
And I think one of the things that we'd like
to get to is having patient records that are portable
and universal, so it belongs to the patient wherever you go,
so you can overcome these problems. So yep, You're right,
it's a problem, but it's a problem. Whatever we do
that we've got to solve and if we solve it,
you'll be able to do more of this stuff through
(08:57):
pharmacies as one of the consequences of that.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, oh, thank you so much for talking to us.
So you happy that people are referring to pseudoephedrine night
and days and such is Seymour's pseudo speed.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, yeah, no, I really am, because look, people, you know,
there's not a lot of thanks in politics, especially not
if you're a slightly edging politician from time to time.
But people only thank me really for two things. One
is pseudo for dream, the other's euthanasia. So I hope
you're thanking me for sud for Dream.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
We can get that rebranded for you across the pharmacy. David,
great to catch up. Thank you very much for your time.
That is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of
Farm eight David Seymours.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Pharmacists could soon take on a bigger role in New
Zealand's healthcare, prescribing some funded medicines without patients needing to
see a doctor first. But just how far could that
purview be extended in time? Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
in charge of FARMAC David Seymour is with US Afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
David, Good, afternoon.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
So I'm confused here, David, and I blame Tyler. I
think he buncher the description of what's going on. Yeah,
So can you explain exactly what's going on here or
what's been eased up, what's available, what pharmacists can be
able to do here?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Well, I hope there's two discussions. Let's answer that question
about what's happening right now and hopefully we can talk
a bit about what might happen. What's happening right now
for sure is that there are seven different treatments or
conditions which FARMAC currently funds medicines for if they are
prescribed by a doctor. FARMAK is reviewing its funding so
(01:12):
that by June you'll be able to go to a pharmacist,
they'll be able to prescribe, and it will be funded
off what's called the combined pharmaceutical budget, so basically five
dollars for most people free if you have a community
services car. That's a change that means that there'll be
more incentive to go to a pharmacist for minor ailments.
(01:34):
They're mainly things for children. We're talking head liice, scabies,
oral dehydration, fever pain, those sorts of things. What could
happen in the future that I think it could go further?
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well, why have we been involving GPS and prescribing life
scabies and conjunctive idis medicine? You know, you know, if
you've got those, you probably don't need a pharmacist even
to tell you that your kid's got nits.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
You're probably not. But you've got to remember that the
prescribing of actual medication does have to be done by
someone that knows what they're doing, because it's not just
do you have thing, but what might be the side
effects of the treatment, So you can understand why there
has to be a health professional involved.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Read the package.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
The other hand, Yeah, I mean, look, you know there's
a view there that I'm not entirely opposed to, but
you know, we've got to just satisfy people on both
ends of the spectrum here, and so most people would
want to know that if they're having a medicine prescribe,
then you know it's been done by someone who can
look at, well, what other treatments are you on, how
(02:35):
might they interact? What conditions do you have other than
what's being treated right now, what might be the side effects?
I mean, you don't have to be a medical expert
to see that there's quite a lot more that can
happen just than reading the packet.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
What does this primarily solve or holp? Is it GP workloads,
cost for customers or helping keeping you know, rural pharmacies
and business and such.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, it's actually all three of those things. So we've
got this fantastic network of community pharmacies that are mostly
actually small businesses, and for as long as I've been
a local MP visiting them, I've heard that they're getting
hammered and a lot have actually shut down, which is
a real loss. So it actually creates more business for
them to keep that network afloat, because it really makes
(03:19):
a big difference for people the more we use it
and the longer it's there. Number two massive problems worth
getting into GPS, which everybody knows about. It's one of
the things that I hear about the most from people saying, look,
you know it can be three weeks and it's still expensive.
So if you can find a way to get some
of the workload that other people can handle off that,
(03:39):
then that's a win win. And then you think about
people with children that are not well and they've got
a ways and it's just a hell of a time
if you have a sick child. So this creates more
opportunity for them and less expense. So you know, it's
a win win win, And I think that in the
future there could be a lot more of this. I
mean ten years ago people say, oh, I don't know
(04:00):
if pharmacists could do immunizations. Now most vaccination or immunization
is actually done by pharmacists. This move that Sime and Brown,
the Health Minister, and I announced yesterday, this is just
a few more things you can get done at a pharmacy.
But I think we could go further and move to
a model where for a lot of conditions, you know
(04:22):
that the pharmacist is the healthcare professional nearest to you,
and it's all about making maximum use of every single
health professional, making sure if they can do something, then
they're available and empowered to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
What would be some of those conditions, Minister you mentioned
on with Mike this morning. Melanoma checks for example, could
be a good place to start. But what other medicines
could come under that purview?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, people talk to me about things like what if
you need to get monitoring and check ups for things
like heart rates. You know, I've visited pharmacies just in
recent times. If you look at good old Timya out
at the Henderson Pharmacy there, she's a real innovator. She's
got an interview room almost like a doctor says, you're
(05:07):
out the back, and she's doing things like, you know,
taking temperature. You can imagine taking bloods the way a
nurse does at a GP. Sorry I didn't mean so temperature,
I said heart condition. So you can imagine more diagnostic
stuff I mentioned checks for skin cancer. This is something
that's usually done or can be done at least by
(05:30):
some sort of technician with the right scanning equipment. You
could imagine maybe going to a pharmacy to do that,
and every one of these procedures that you take out
of GP clinics, out of emergency departments where people sometimes
go if they can't get to their GP, makes the
whole system more efficient from the government's point of view,
but more convenient from the patient's point of view.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, I mean, pharmacists are smart people. It's not easy
to get a pharmacy degree. And you know, we all
know we will look over our GPS shoulder and see
them googlingling what you're going to give us. Anyway, where
would the clinical line be for you? You, David though
we were at the end because I mean, because there's
probably things maybe antidepressants is probably don't want them being
(06:13):
handed out on.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
A tramodole codeine.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah. I mean, obviously there's going to be a line
that we're comfortable with, but I would just observe. In
New Zealand, I think the line is a bit sort
of tight around what has to be done by a
GP or at a hospital in an ED, and we're
less permissive about pharmacist nurse practition as physician assistants and
so on. I always remember a story I had a
(06:39):
partner in Canada when I lived there years ago, and
she'd say, I'm going to my nurse practitioner, and I thought, man,
what a third world country. Why don't you go to
a doctor like we do in New Zealand. Now, upon
returning home and thinking about it a bit, I think
she had a point because you know, here we tend
to rely on GPS and hospitals to do a lot
(07:00):
of stuff that could be done elsewhere. So really, who
is the more sophisticated country? I would argue it's them.
And I'm not saying that, you know, there's all going
to be some stuff you can only get done by
a doctor, of course, but I think, not based on politics,
but based on real clinical evidence, we can probably get
a bit more bang for buck out of the health
professionals we have. And if you look at the forecast
(07:21):
for an aging population, you know, a sea of red
ink and deficits and healthcare. We're going to have to
start doing stuff smarter.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Is there a potential problem with you know, fragmentation of
care and record keeping? You know, if someone's getting this here,
you know one of the things GPS keep good records
and share their records, right, So is that that a
potential problem. You've got this from the pharmacy, but that
when you actually go into I know, you rush to emergency,
(07:49):
there's no information around that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I think that's a big problem that we have to
solve anyway. I'll give you another example. Tell me telling
too many of these stories. But I was at the
wake out of hospital emergency department once and they've been
showing me around telling me what they did. And they
explain to me. They said, look, if you were in
a car creation Hamilton, because you're in Auckland, we would
(08:14):
have to email Auckland for your medical records. And I'm
like what you Meanwhile, I'm bleeding out on a table.
They're like yeah, And I said, but hang on a minute.
Didn't the Labor government merge all the DHBs into one?
They said, no, No, that was just the letterheads that
the ITT system is not actually integrated. We're now doing that.
We're getting much better, and we have to do that anyway.
(08:36):
And I think one of the things that we'd like
to get to is having patient records that are portable
and universal, so it belongs to the patient wherever you go,
so you can overcome these problems. So yep, You're right,
it's a problem, but it's a problem. Whatever we do
that we've got to solve and if we solve it,
you'll be able to do more of this stuff through
(08:57):
pharmacies as one of the consequences of that.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, oh, thank you so much for talking to us.
So you happy that people are referring to pseudoephedrine night
and days and such is Seymour's pseudo speed.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, yeah, no, I really am, because look, people, you know,
there's not a lot of thanks in politics, especially not
if you're a slightly edging politician from time to time.
But people only thank me really for two things. One
is pseudo for dream, the other's euthanasia. So I hope
you're thanking me for sud for Dream.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
We can get that rebranded for you across the pharmacy. David,
great to catch up. Thank you very much for your time.
That is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of
Farm eight David Seymours.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
For more from News Talk sed B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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