Prescription limits are changing - here's what you need to know. Photo / 123rf
Twelve-month prescriptions will be available in New Zealand from February 1.
That’s for patients with stable, long-term health conditions, Health Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced last year.
The change, first announced in the Government’s 2025 Budget, is promising to save time for both GPs and patients, as well as reduce costs and the number of appointments for people who need multiple prescriptions a year.
Currently, most prescriptions are 3-monthly, meaning patients on long-term medications must request repeats throughout the year at a cost.
Extending prescriptions to 12 months could save people around $105 a year on repeats, Brown has said.
He told RNZ earlier this month, “The removal of co-payments will also reduce the complexity of implementing the initiative, including changes required to external IT systems for prescribing and dispensing.”
Health New Zealand was working with primary care and community pharmacies ahead of the rollout, with the support of the Ministry of Health and Pharmac, he said.
Pharmacy Guild chief executive Andrew Gaudin says: “This change is intended to reduce barriers to access for people with stable, long-term health conditions by reducing the need for frequent prescriber visits, while also freeing up prescribers to focus on patients with more complex needs.
“Eligible patients will save money by incurring less prescription renewal charges and less pharmaceutical co-payment charges.”
While you’ll make just one co-payment and won’t need to pay for repeats, you’ll still only be able to collect three months’ worth of medication at a time.
“Pharmacists can only supply a maximum of three months of your medicines at any one time, even if your prescription covers a longer period,” Gaudin says.
“You will need to collect any repeat supplies of your medicines from the same pharmacy.”
The three-month dispensing limit will “support medicines access across New Zealand and reduce the safety risks associated with large quantities of medicines being stored at home”, he adds.
Dr Prabani Wood, a GP at Waikato University Student Health and director of the Royal New Zealand College of GPs, says extended prescriptions will benefit some patients.
“Longer prescription lengths are definitely going to be useful for some patients and save them personally some money. However, it’s not going to suit a lot of patients as well.”
Controlled drugs such as opiates won’t be available on a 12-month prescription, but oral contraceptives will – they currently have a six-month prescribing limit. From February 1, you’ll still only be able to pick up six months’ worth of contraceptive pills at a time.
If you’re on long-term medication that requires regular monitoring such as blood tests, you may not be eligible for a 12-month prescription. Some patients with complex medical issues may be on several different prescriptions, some of which will need closer monitoring than others.
“It’s important for patients to understand that prescribers determine whether it’s clinically safe and appropriate to prescribe your medicines for up to 12 months,” Gaudin says.
“Talk to your GP about what’s best for you.”
Wood says a concern for GPs is that people could miss out on their regular doctor’s visits if they have longer prescriptions.
“What we would love ... is people having their regular GP that they see and build up that relationship with,” she says.
“That continuity of care is so vital in general practice. It’s what makes general practice work. But over the years through lack of GPs, lack of funding, we’re starting to lose that and we’re getting that fragmentation of care.”
Some people are prescribed medication through a specialist or secondary care provider, for certain chronic conditions, rather than by their GP, which adds another layer of complexity to the change.
“One of the biggest issues is that visibility of dispensing, and we don’t have the IT systems set up properly – well, it varies across the country – to be able to see where a prescription was dispensed and whether it’s been collected appropriately or not,” Wood says.
“Communication with the pharmacy is really even more vital. Depending on which IT system you use in general practice, you can write notes to the pharmacist, but they don’t always see it, so it can cause issues.”
Approving repeats are just one of many daily admin tasks for GPs, Wood says.
“Unfortunately the way most of us as GPs do our repeat prescriptions [is] usually in our breaks or before you start seeing patients for the day, or you just grab a couple of minutes here and there.
“So I don’t think it’s going to free up a huge amount of GP time, and initially it’s probably going to add to our workload when we have to have those discussions with patients.”
Each GP practice will vary in how they practically deal with the change, as their patient loads will differ.
“There are definitely some practices where the majority of their patients are elderly, and they’re going to be complex,” she says.
“You could have two patients on the same set of medications and one could be eligible for a longer prescription and one not. It all depends on the patient.
“If a GP is saying ‘No, I’m afraid you’re not eligible for a 12-month prescription’, it will be due to clinical safety, not because they just want to keep seeing you.”
Extending prescriptions will likely increase pharmacy workloads, Gaudin says.
“For community pharmacies, the introduction of 12-month prescriptions presents new operational and administrative challenges. We have developed guidance to support member pharmacies in navigating the transition and applying the new regulations and funding rules consistently and safely.”
A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand told the Herald, “We won’t know the impact of the change until the policy is implemented next week. We will continue to monitor the situation and provide support to our members as required.
“We worked closely with the College of GPs and the Pharmacy Guild on a poster for pharmacies and we have issued guidance to our members. We have also worked closely with Health NZ which has also made resources available to the public.
“If a patient has any concerns or questions, talk to your pharmacist or your GP.”
Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis’ real-life stories.