The Pharmacy Services Agreement (PSA) is the contract between pharmacy owners and their local District Health Board (DHB). It has been consulted on with the DHBs and sector agents, including the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (the Guild), over the last 18 months and holds the biggest change in services and funding the profession has had in over 50 years.

On 1 July 2012, community pharmacy will begin a three year transitional PSA which intends to move pharmacy from being paid solely by a medicine dispensing fee, to a patient-focused payment mechanism. This will align the profession more closely within the primary health care team. The transitional PSA is a reconfiguration of services around patients' medicine management and better utilises pharmacists as the medicines experts.

"The Guild supports the PSA and the ability of all parties involved to work together to ensure its successful implementation," says the Guild's Executive Chair, Karen Crisp. "We agree that some pharmacists have not yet got enough information to fully understand the Agreement and we are working hard with the DHBs to get this information to our members."

After raising concerns over tight timeframes and a lack of information on the new service and funding model, community pharmacists have been given three options to consider by their DHB when signing their PSA. Some pharmacists have returned their signed contracts today.

Pharmacists have until 5pm today to signal to their DHB that they are going to sign and return the Agreement by 13 July. If they need longer to meet with their DHB to negotiate funding details specific to their pharmacy (Part P), they have until 23 July to sign.

As this PSA is transitional, it will rely on inaugural operational and governance groups to make changes where they are necessary over this three year transitional Agreement period. These groups will oversee the new PSA and work to ensure its success.

"This Agreement provides an opportunity for community pharmacists to be recognised for working more closely with patients who can benefit from their pharmacist's knowledge and skills," says Mrs Crisp. "New IT developments also mean there will be an opportunity for better collaboration between prescribers and pharmacy. This is good news for patients."

Changes to the PSA include the following:

·         The implementation on 1 February 2013 of more structure to help support patients with long term conditions (LTC) to manage their medicines.

·         LTC patients having difficulty managing their medicines will need to register with a pharmacy to receive extra support to manage their medicines.

·         There will be no change to services for acute patients (those who need medicines episodically or regularly but are able to manage their medicines without extra help).

The Guild and the DHBs are developing patient and sector information to be distributed throughout the country. The Guild will also be developing member-only tools to ensure its members are armed for the change and are equipped to provide quality health care to their communities.