Prescription subsidy message

University of Otago senior pharmacy student Harumi Tanimura (22) is promoting a ''20 is Plenty'' campaign to boost awareness of the prescription card subsidy scheme. Photo by Linda Robertson.
University of Otago senior pharmacy student Harumi Tanimura (22) is promoting a ''20 is Plenty'' campaign to boost awareness of the prescription card subsidy scheme. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Six senior University of Otago pharmacy students have done ''amazing'' work to raise awareness about the benefits of the prescription subsidy card scheme.

That comment came yesterday from one of the students' supervisors, pharmacy Professional Practice Fellow Aynsley Peterson.

Their other supervisor is Prof Pauline Norris, who has previously highlighted issues with prescription affordability for some people.

From February 1 each year, people who have paid for 20 new prescription medicine items are eligible to receive the subsidy card, and are then exempt from further prescription charges for government-funded medicines, until January 31 the next year.

But the students say awareness of the scheme should be increased.

Related research undertaken by Otago student colleagues last year showed 62% of 451 New Zealanders answering a health questionnaire were unaware of the scheme.

And the six students have joined forces as part of their final year ''research elective'' to promote the scheme through a lively ''20 is Plenty'' promotional campaign.

And Otago research also showed that 28% of people did not know that prescription items used by a patient's partner or dependent children under the age of 18 could also be combined towards subsidy card eligibility.

Ms Peterson said this year's students were ''very enthusiastic and quite resourceful'', and she praised ''all of the things they've done''.

These included creating promotional T-shirts, and distinctive stickers for use in pharmacies, and developing a wide range of other information, for social media use.

Anyone unsure how the subsidy worked should ask a pharmacist, she said.

One of the students, Harumi Tanimura, produced ''20 is Plenty'' T-shirts for her fellow students, and said some Dunedin people were ''missing out'' on the ''right kind of support''.

The other participating students are Lexi Bian, Prajakta Lawande, Angela Lee, Ashley Neoh and Abigail Paul.

Add a Comment