2 December 2004
Consultation on new strategic direction for pharmacy services in Hawke’s Bay
At its monthly meeting yesterday, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board members recommended for consultation, a new
strategic approach to the development and funding of pharmacy services in Hawke’s Bay. (Refer to Board Report attached
as Appendix 1)
General manager of planning and funding, Sue Peacock, said the District Health Board was responsible for ensuring the
best value for every dollar spent on health services, including pharmacy services, and believed there were ways of
working smarter which would improve the health of Hawke’s Bay people.
“We put forward some innovative ideas for the Board to consider, and will be discussing these in more detail with
pharmacists, GPs, rest-home owners, specialists and other stakeholders over the next few months.
Mrs Peacock said the DHB was keen to ‘work with the willing’ and that meant working with pharmacists who were keen to
explore different ways of working, and in different settings.
“There are exciting opportunities ahead, and we see a very positive future for pharmacists wanting to develop their
career and work to improve the health of Hawke’s Bay families,” Sue Peacock said.
“At the moment we are spending about $9.2m each year for pharmacists to dispense medications, and with the growth in
demand, this is not sustainable in the long term. We believe technology, combined with well-trained pharmacy technicians
can free up pharmacists from some of the more routine tasks such as counting pills and putting labels on bottles. We
would like to utilise pharmacists skills, university training and expertise in areas where they can have a more direct
and significant impact on the health of Hawke’s Bay people.
“In the long term, we see fewer retail pharmacies in Hawke’s Bay; our vision is for pharmacists to come out from behind
the shop counter, and practise their craft in communities where there is high need. This could include pharmacists
working with individuals in communities such as Flaxmere and Maraenui as well as working with older people. In the
future, pharmacists could be a member of a Primary Health Organisation working alongside other health professionals as
part of a multi-disciplinary team.
“We know that around a third of all hospital admissions of older people are related to problems with their medications,
which is why we’d like to see pharmacists dedicated to working alongside rest-home staff and doctors to ensure
residents’ medications are reviewed at least annually, and to ensure that residents are on the most appropriate
medications.
“Another initiative we’re keen to explore is ‘one stop’ hospital dispensing. This would see patients leaving hospital
with all their medications, rather than a prescription they would then have to collect from a chemist shop.
“The benefits of such a scheme would enable a hospital-based pharmacist to provide patient education (regarding when to
take their medications, how it worked, any side-effects etc) and there would be more opportunity for patients and their
families to ask questions about medications before discharge. By having medications, rather than a prescription to be
dispensed at a later date, there was a much higher rate of continuity with medication regimes.
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board chief operating officer, Ray Lind, said Healthcare Services had recently appointed a
pharmacist to work in the DHB’s mental health and addiction service to work alongside clinicians prescribing
medications. He said as well as increasing the effectiveness of medications, there had been an unexpected bonus of
around 30% savings in the cost of medications for the service.
“That’s money that can be put into other front-line services, and that’s good news for Hawke’s Bay people,” Sue Peacock
said.
“We believe there are better ways of funding and developing pharmacy services, and we will be looking to those who work
in the sector to provide feedback on how we can progress some of the initiatives outlined at yesterday’s Board meeting,”
Sue Peacock said.
ENDS