YOUR PHARMACIST

Your Pharmacist is a qualified health professional who has trained at university for at least four years to obtain a degree. Further training under supervision of an accredited Pharmacist is required before being able to utilize their skills and knowledge on their own to help you with your medicines.

Your Pharmacist is part of your community associated with other health professionals such as doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists to name a few.

Your Pharmacist’s primary role is to dispense medicines prescribed by other health professionals. As well as dispensing your medicines, a Pharmacist can advise you on most of your ailments and if not then can refer you to the appropriate health professional that may. For further knowledge of your Pharmacist refer to the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand for the role of Pharmacies www.pgnz.org.nz and the Pharmaceutical Society of new Zealand for the role of Pharmacists www.psnz.org.nz.

Your prescriptions may involve charges to individual patients, with subsidies from the government. Below is an outline of what charges you may expect to pay.

Prescription Charges

Health Card		Charge**
No card	Adult	$15
	Child 6 or over	$10
	Child under 6	$0
	PHO enrolee *	$3
Community Services Card (CSC)	All clients	$3
High Use Health Card (HUHC)	All clients	$3
Prescription Subsidy Card	No other card	$2
	With HUHC only	$2
	With CSC	$0
	PHO enrolee *	$0
Contraceptives		$3

*Note: PHO = Primary Health Care Organisation where client has enrolled with medial practice accredited as a Primary Health Care Organisation.

**Note: Addition surcharges may occur due to discrepancy between government funding and manufacturer’s asking prices which are passed onto the end user (patient) in the form of a “manufacturer’s premium”. Also certain items may not attract a government subsidy at all, where the end user has to pay for the medicine in full.

Your Pharmacist on duty at all times is Lloyd Kan.