jct@pharmacytoday.co.nz

A group of University of Otago School of Pharmacy students and their lecturer prepared for the COVID-19 lockdown last week by making a massive amount of hand sanitiser for their university and Dunedin’s hospital

Last week Medsafe announced it is temporarily suspending all site audits carried out under the Pharmacy Quality Audit Programme Framework. 

DHBs have been directed to consider pharmacists lower priority when deciding how they should distribute stocks of personal protective equipment to health workers fighting COVID-19

Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield has waived the requirement of a prescriber’s signature for electronic prescriptions to enable remote prescribing during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis

New Zealand pharmacies are advised to heavily restrict entry to their premises as they remain open during the COVID-19 lockdown

Pharmacists have been asked to limit the dispensing of funded medicines to a one-month supply in response to the COVID-19 crisis

The Pharmacy Council is getting ready to recall former pharmacists if a larger pharmacy workforce is needed to respond to the COVID-19 crisis

Pharmaceutical Society president Ian McMichael is advising pharmacists to support each other as specific advice on how pharmacists should react to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis begins to appear