Health minister signals more significant roles in store for pharmacists

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL of the pharmacy workforce is a top priority for health minister Ayesha Verrall.

Addressing the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand’s ‘Just Breathe’ conference in Auckland on 17 June, Dr Verrall said 98 per cent of the population lived within 20 minutes of a pharmacy. Pharmacists, therefore, had tremendous potential to deliver on Te Whatu Ora’s vision for providing care close to where people lived.

Workforce matters were a big focus for the health agency, she said.

“In the coming months, we’ll be talking more about our plans for the health workforce and how to make sure that Te Whatu Ora is working hard with the institutions that train our clinicians in order to make sure we have a sustainable workforce for the future.”

She added that Te Whatu Ora would use its influence as a significant healthcare employer to tell education providers what was needed. The Government would continue to work with professional bodies to determine how workforces could work collaboratively.

“We want to unlock potential in communities and in our talented workforces. As front-line health workers and experts in the health system itself, we need to work with you.”

Dr Verrall said she was aware that some people believed the minor-ailments scheme should be rolled out to all areas but stressed that it would be reviewed at the end of winter to see if it could be extended in the next financial year.

When an audience member asked whether the minor-ailment template could be used for pharmacists to deliver other services, such as women’s health, Dr Verrall said she was open to working with the sector.

Dr Verrall told the audience that pharmacists had a pivotal role in improving people’s health and should also be utilised in the integrated primary and community care teams.

She said work was being done to create national networks of inter-professional clinicians, like the stroke and trauma networks that were recently introduced.

Dr Verrall said COVID-19 provided opportunities for pharmacists to extend their scope of practice into providing vaccination, immunisation and telehealth services.

She said that pharmacists were integral in helping to ease pressure on the health system during winter, delivering immunisations and vaccinations, which were firstline defence points.

“The pharmacy sector has been fantastic in immunising our population. In the last calendar year, you have administered over 1.7 million doses of COVID vaccinations and over 480,000 influenza vaccines. Indeed, you do deserve to just breathe for a minute.”