Community Pharmacy Leaders Forum meeting update

Media Release

13 February 2017

Community Pharmacy Leaders Forum meeting update

The Community Pharmacy Leaders Forum (CPLF) held their first meeting for 2017 on Monday 30 January in Christchurch. CPLF is chaired by the Guild’s President, with the Guild’s Chief Executive responsible for organising CPLF meetings.

CPLF represents the strengthening of community pharmacy’s voice and fronts industry leadership. The forum also focuses on how the profession continues to advocate for the delivery of people centred care within our local communities.

The meeting was hosted by Canterbury Community Pharmacy Group’s, Dr Aarti Patel, at Pegasus House. The forum was addressed by Pegasus Health CEO, Vince Barry, and Canterbury Clinical Network Programme Director, Kim Sinclair-Morris, who discussed their experiences and key learnings on alliancing and integration.

CPLF welcomed the Ministry of Health’s plans to enable community pharmacist vaccinators to administer funded influenza vaccinations to patients aged 65 and over, and to all pregnant women. Ministry of Health representatives highlighted this change while providing CPLF with an update on immunisation.

The forum then discussed some of the key issues currently facing the sector. There was a strong focus on the development of the contract group, with members keen to get this established so the important work and engagement could begin. All members of the forum saw the development of the next contract as a way of bringing the sector together to move towards a more sustainable and robust future. The group saw their combined total of sector agent nominations, equating to 91%, as putting them in an ideal position to deliver desirable outcomes for the sector to facilitate people centred care.

CPLF agreed to continue with their collaborative approach towards addressing the proposed pharmacy ownership changes, with the aim of achieving a change in that policy direction. Integration and collaboration to enhance primary care was discussed, and forming positive working relationships with other primary health care providers will remain an important focus. This will include supporting the development of a framework for community pharmacy and general practice to work together to deliver integrated health care which is a project being led by the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Medical Association. The meeting was concluded with a visit to Canterbury DHB to hear about their innovative approach to integrated primary health care and we are keen to explore how we can implement similar innovative approaches across the entire sector.

ENDS

Notes:

• • CPLF consists of representatives from Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand, Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand, Green Cross Health Limited, Canterbury Community Pharmacy Group, MidCentral Community Pharmacy Group and Midlands Community Pharmacy Group.

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