A group of community pharmacies is calling for the $5 prescription fee on medications to be scrapped in a new campaign.
The Independent Community Pharmacy Group represents around 115 pharmacy owners and has launched a new initiative today to call on health authorities to scrap the "patient co-payment fee" on prescriptions.
Pharmacist Lanny Wong told Breakfast that the fee meant patients had to choose between eating and taking medicines — which could leave them worse off later on.
"I've watched many patients who have cherry-picked their medicine because they just can't afford it," she said. "We have mental health patients who are on antidepressants and sleeping tablets. They will go for the sleeping tablet and not the antidepressant."
The fee was first introduced in the 1980s and was last adjusted in 2013 when the Government increased the charge from $3 to $5.
Mental health advocate Jazz Thornton said she had struggled with prescription fees when she was younger and that it was still a big "barrier" for many New Zealanders.
"What is $5? But just because you don't see - it doesn't mean it doesn't exist," she said.
"I moved out of home at 16 and was completely by myself. There were so many times that I couldn't afford to get any of the medication because then I'd also have to pay the fee to get on the bus to get there, and I was living on one pack of noodles for the week."
Wong said the removal of fees in areas affected by Cyclone Gabrielle had shown positive effects, with anecdotally more people collecting their medication as a result.
She said patients were "a lot more relaxed" and easier to speak to when "we can actually talk about their health, not money".
"We didn't have this co-payment for about a month, and that changed the relationship between patient and pharmacists. People can come in, we can explain everything to them, and then they can just take it," she said.
"There is no discussion about something that would cost you $20. [And you get the response] 'Oh, I've only got $5 today — which one should I take?'
"We don't have to help them make that type of decision."
The fee collected for prescriptions is paid back to the Government and not kept by pharmacies. In its media release calling for the changes, the pharmacy owner group described the charges as “inhumane” leading to “soul-destroying” consequences.
A pharmacist told the group: “I have heard a parent say to their child, ‘It’s either medicine or food, we can't afford both'."
In February, an Otago University study found that removing fees had a noticable effect on keeping more people out of hospital.
In trial groups, there were fewer admissions for mental health problems and lung disease, with shorter stays for people in the latter category.
Charges should be dropped for people with high health needs and low incomes or be scrapped entirely, the researchers recommended.
The community pharmacy group said in a position paper that there were existing "workarounds" that were being used instead. Some pharmacists said they were helping to pay for their patient's medications or spending time helping them find help.
Meanwhile, the group said "corporate pharmacies" were using free prescriptions as a loss leader, which drove out independent shops, and that weren't often present in rural areas.
The group suggested other existing initiatives to discount prescriptions were ineffective.
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