Street Maryan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Street Maryan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3281. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
10. 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Does he stand by all the answers given on his behalf to Oral Question No. 6 on Thursday 21 June? 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Substantially yes though I understand that where Mrs Goodhew referred to a document being sent out on 1 June it was in fact put on the internet and made available to everybody with notification. The district health boards have been in negotiation with pharmacy businesses for some time and we are now moving to a new contract which recognises the considerable clinical expertise that pharmacists have instead of just paying them for filling bottles and containers. There are around 950 pharmacy businesses. Two-thirds are represented by the Pharmacy Guild. I have spoken to the guild today and although there are some individual businesses with issues signed contracts are pouring in and the guild is happy the district health boards are doing everything possible to meet its pharmacy members’ needs. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: In the light of that answer do I take it that the reason that some pharmacists were seeing a copy of their 163-page contract for the first time as late as midday last Friday was that they were meant to go to the website to discover it on 1 June? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: People were made aware that a copy of the contract was available online on 1 June. Individual PDFs were sent out from 6 and 7 June with some occurring slightly later than this. I am aware of one situation down south where because their contract was not varying from that appearing on the website they did not receive a physical copy until a bit later on. But the only variation from what was on the website was that their name was filled in. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Will the fees that apply from 1 February 2013 be included in the contract that pharmacists are being asked to sign by 5 p.m. today or if one listens to the Pharmacy Guild by 13 July or by 23 July; if not can he guarantee that pharmacists will not be worse off after 1 February 2013? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: As the pharmacy businesses will know the latest advice I have received is that over 60 percent of pharmacy businesses in New Zealand have already returned signed contracts or indicated that they do intend to sign the contracts. The fees payable from 1 February are the subject of some continuing negotiations between various working parties. But what the district health boards have indicated is that the quantum of annual funding will remain the same. There is no reduction on what we are spending this year that I am aware of. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Can he guarantee that the new contract will meet the requirements of high-needs communities and will not threaten patients’ safety as one pharmacist in a high-needs area has put it? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I think if we are moving from a system where we pay pharmacists money for every bottle and container of medicine they pour some pills or some liquid into to one that rewards them for the care and the use of their clinical skills that is a win-win not only for pharmacy but also for high-needs patients. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Will he address the current chaos in this sector and simply instruct the district health boards to roll over the existing contract until such time as all the concerns around the professional and financial matters that pharmacists are raising are allayed; if not why not? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: No. Already well over 60 percent of the pharmacy businesses in New Zealand either have returned their contracts or have indicated that they are going to sign them. We have been negotiating for quite some time and I have got to say that actually there is a lot of goodwill in pharmacy businesses to make this change. When you have been to university for so long and you have got such great clinical skills I actually think you should be paid for your clinical skills not for pouring pills into a bottle.