Pharmaceuticals helpline back to ordinary hours

NZFSA Pan Pharmaceuticals helpline back to ordinary hours

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority’s helpline for consumers with inquiries about Pan Pharmaceuticals products has been scaled back because the number of calls has decreased drastically.

The NZFSA’s 0800 helpline has received, since Thursday May 1, about 7500 calls from consumers about P)an Pharmaceuticals products. At its peak the NZFSA was receiving more than 1200 calls a day. Extra staff were employed to cope with the demand.

The number of calls to the helpline has decreased quite drastically since last Friday and the helpline will now revert to its normal hours of operation of 8am to 5pm five days a week. It will continue to take general calls from the public, which is what it is used for normally, and will also continue to answer inquiries about the recall of Pan Pharmaceuticals products.

“The 0800 number proved very effective in helping consumers identify if they had products that had been recalled and what to do with those products,” NZFSA’s Director of Policy and Regulatory Standards Carole Inkster said.

“We are hoping that we won’t have to do any more recalls and it seems practical for the helpline to revert back to normal hours of business now that the number of calls has decreased. If for any reason we expect the number of calls to increase markedly again we will extend the hours.”

“Information on the Pan Pharmaceuticals recall issue is still available on our website http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz if people can’t ring during ordinary business hours. However if people do ring after hours, the calls will be answered but information will not be able to be given out. Instead an NZFSA staff member will call the person back the next day to answer their inquiry,” Ms Inkster said.

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