Barbara Hawkins-Falk says pharmacies are branching out into other client-pays services in a bid to survive. Photo / 123RF
Whanganui is feeling the effects of a pharmacist shortage, with one chain store closing and another forced to change its name.
The Woolworths Victoria Ave pharmacy will shut this month.
In a statement, Woolworths NZ head of pharmacy Jeremy Armes said the country had suffered an acute pharmacist shortage for the past five years, and that had been particularly problematic in rural areas and regional towns.
“After our pharmacy manager moved to another internal opportunity last year, we have been operating the Woolworths Pharmacy with a pharmacist who is usually based in Christchurch,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this was only ever intended as a short-term solution, so without recruitment success, we are being forced to close.”
He said other pharmacies in Whanganui were similarly affected.
Gonville Pharmacy owner Barbara Hawkins-Falk said she had “pretty much given up” trying to find pharmacists, and that meant long hours and no holiday since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Pharmacies were branching out into other client-pays services to try to survive, including contraception and warfarin testing, she said.
“But we are well behind the eight-ball in terms of funding in general for dispensing services.
“We [Whanganui pharmacists] had discussions with our local MP as a group, but he is not the Minister of Health.
“Maybe, we feel better for having said something, but it didn’t get us anywhere, and it won’t get us anywhere.”
Whanganui MP Carl Bates said pharmacists were “a vital part of our communities and help relieve pressure on other parts of the health system by being a first port of call”.
“Over the last two years, I have met with pharmacists in Whanganui a number of times, as well as shared their concerns with the Minister of Health,” he said.
Aramoho Pharmacy owner Diane Boyle said she had been advertising for a pharmacist for four years.
“In my 25 years of pharmacy, this is the absolute worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said.
“The Government completely underfunds community pharmacy.
“We can’t compete with hospital pharmacies. It’s insulting. The money we get is so much less.”
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora did not respond to questions about the alleged pay disparity between hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists.
In a statement, its living well acting director, Astuti Balram, said Health NZ acknowledged the concerns raised by pharmacists in Whanganui and other smaller and rural communities.
Community pharmacy was experiencing workforce pressures, Balram said.
“In response, Health New Zealand has allocated workforce development funding to support pharmacists in gaining additional qualifications, and funding pathways to become prescribing pharmacists.
“In addition, we are focused on the growth of other priority pharmacy workforces, particularly Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technicians (PACTs) and continue to fund this initiative.”
Boyle said young people trained for five years (four-year Bachelor of Pharmacy plus one-year internship), only to find they were paid less than those who had trained for three years in different parts of the health sector.
“They are leaving, they’re going overseas or going locuming because they can charge more.
“And people are retiring as well, with not enough people to cover the places.”
Locums are doctors or clinicians who cover roles in cases of staff shortages or planned leave.
Whanganui’s Bargain Chemist store is now Bargain Plus.
Manager Jordan Rayner said it lost its pharmacy over the Christmas period.
“Dispensaries are getting harder and harder to run, because the majority of us are locuming them,” he said.
“It’s just costing a bit too much.
“The way I see it, all the younger ones coming out of university, none of them want to move to Whanganui. They want to stay in the big cities.”
Armes said a third pharmacy school opened at the University of Waikato last year, and the Pharmacy Council recently enabled internationally qualified pharmacists to become qualified in New Zealand more quickly.
But those initiatives would take at least two years to ease the pressure, he said.
“Our pharmacy at Victoria Ave has proudly served the Whanganui community for the last nine years.
“We hope to do so again in the future once pharmacist availability permits.”
Balram said Health NZ was working with the sector on implementing a $5 million innovation fund for enhanced community services and had agreed with the community pharmacy sector to undertake a sustainable funding review.
It was planned to be completed this year, “and is expected to inform future sustainable funding models for community pharmacy”.
Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) chief executive Helen Morgan-Banda said in a statement that across the country, several local pharmacies had closed.
“We are advocating with the Government and Health NZ for change,” she said.
“Our top priority is to see the sector funded appropriately, with funding for extended clinical services, and workforce changes to ensure pharmacists and technicians can work to their full capability.”
Morgan-Banda said PSNZ had another meeting with Health Minister Simeon Brown this week, where it would be raising those issues.
Boyle said the Government giving licences to discount pharmacies such as Chemist Warehouse and Bargain Chemist meant there were even more spaces to fill.
“Locums are incredibly expensive, and we don’t get paid enough to fund them,” she said.
“There’s the increased [pay] rate, the accommodation and the travel.
“You just can’t sustain that in community pharmacy.”
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.