Moves to standardise the cost of prescriptions have not gone far enough, Pharmacy guild of New Zealand chief executive Annabel Young says.
From Monday, patients who have been paying $15 a prescription for some drugs prescribed in public hospitals and after-hours clinics will pay $3 for those drugs, the same price charged for prescriptions from a primary health organisation (PHO).
The $3 charge, however, will not apply to anyone providing a completely privately funded service, such as private specialists and general practitioners who are not part of a PHO.
The $3 charge will apply to prescriptions issued by midwives, dentists, or doctors working in a hospice or rest-home which have contracts, access or service agreements with them.
Pharmacists and patients had not been happy about the fact they were being charged five times more for the same drugs, depending on where the prescription originated.
In some instances, patients were going back to their PHOs to get hospital prescriptions re-issued to save money.
Ms Young said pharmacists had hoped the changes would apply to private specialists, as well.
She expected people faced with the $15 charges when the prescription came from a private specialist would continue to go back to their general practitioners to get prescriptions re-issued, something which would still cost the taxpayer money, because the doctor could claim for the visit.
