Uncollected medication at Unichem Rotorua Central Pharmacy. Photo / Andrew Warner
Uncollected medication at Unichem Rotorua Central Pharmacy. Photo / Andrew Warner
A Rotorua pharmacist has raised fresh calls to end the $5 prescription tax as his shelves fill with uncollected medications.
Unichem Rotorua Central Pharmacy owner David Honore said this was "a huge problem" in Rotorua and the $5 tax was a "barrier" for a lot of people.
And another Rotoruapharmacy said people would "pause" collecting their medication due to the cost, and "quite often" it would give them the medicine and "just wear the cost ourselves".
The pharmacies are calling for equity in access to medication and want everyone with a community services card to forego paying the $5 prescription tax.
Honore said the challenge was highlighted during the first Covid lockdown where people panicked and tried to get all of their medication at once.
"Then 50 per cent of our population in town would be able to get their medications for free basically."
Honore said Chemist Warehouse and Countdown would dispense their medication for free which smaller community pharmacies could not compete with.
In his view, community pharmacies in New Zealand feel like they have been "let down by the DHBs" in that they have issued contracts to those two retailers to dispense medication.
"We can't compete on it. Community pharmacies cannot compete with that when we have to pay a wage for a pharmacist, dispensary technician, all that sort of thing.
"That's what concerning me ... that the smaller community pharmacies that haven't got a big retail base but give a tremendous service to all their local community [are] going to be put out of business by it."
Unichem Rotorua Central Pharmacy owner David Honore. Photo / Andrew Warner
Honore said he had complained to the DHB about the issues. It responded by quoting the Commerce Act and saying it had no control over business plans.
He had also shown members of the DHB "what's been left here and what's happening".
Western Heights Pharmacy co-owner Cameron Monteith said his pharmacy was "exactly the same" as Unichem and was "probably more impacted" given the area of Rotorua it cared for.
"It's a decile zero setup here - we've got lots of people who are really deprived."
Monteith mentioned the exemption year which would renew on February 1. He explained that if a family of those aged 14 and over had paid for 20 prescription items between February 1 and January 31, they no longer had to pay the $5 tax for the rest of that period. Children aged 13 and under did not pay the tax.
"We've got a lot of people who are currently exempt from prescription charges ... but that's about to be reset to zero.
"We see this every year where effectively people just pause collecting their prescriptions because they can't afford it.
"As a result, they don't pick up their regular medicine so things like high blood pressure, diabetes, gout, these long-term conditions just aren't being treated.
"Quite often we'll actually just give them the medicine - we just wear the cost ourselves."
He said other places in New Zealand such as Countdown and Chemist Warehouse that were absorbing the $5 was "just not sustainable".
"They're absorbing it not to do a public service - they're there to sell other things."
A "compassionate step" would be to remove the tax for those with a community service card.
Countdown head of pharmacy Jeremy Armes said "around half" of prescriptions issued in its pharmacies would not attract the $5 tax as they were either repeats or customers had reached the maximum threshold of the 20 funded prescription items per year.
"We choose not to collect tax on the rest. This is a model that works for us and our customers.
"Although we have similar operating costs to other pharmacies, we are fortunate to have an economy of scale across our 38 in-store pharmacies that allows us to pass some savings on to customers as part of our commitment to making healthcare affordable and accessible for all Kiwis."
Ranolf Pharmacy owner Charlotte Schimanski submitted a paper to the Lakes District Health Board about removing the $5 prescription tax. Photo / Andrew Warner
Ranolf Pharmacy owner Charlotte Schimanski said she submitted a paper to the DHB in March 2020 about removing the $5 co-payment in order to allow equitable access to prescription medicines.
She said it was "well documented" that Māori experienced worse health outcomes than non-Māori which was particularly relevant in Rotorua due to its higher Māori population.
"We should be urgently addressing these inequities which are in part due to barriers in accessing medication."
A Lakes District Health Board spokesperson said the co-payment for medication was a government policy and not a DHB one.
"Countdown and Chemist Warehouse have made business decisions to pay the $5 co-payment themselves in order to have a competitive edge.
"Lakes DHB would be in breach of the Commerce Act if it did not accept contracts with businesses which encourage competition."
The Ministry of Health and Chemist Warehouse were approached for comment.
