A collective of pharmacists wants National to backtrack on its policy to ditch free prescriptions while the cost living crisis persists.
Community service and gold card holders would still get free medications and for any other family or person, prescription fees would be capped at $100 per year.
The Prescription Access Initiative believes the proposed changes could have dire results, spokesperson and Mangawhai pharmacist Lanny Wong told Checkpoint.
She said the change had allowed pharmacists to spend more time actually talking with patients about their health, rather than negotiating medicine costs.
"It's been a wonderful change for pharmacies. For pharmacists we've got so much time at the till, like our conversation now is all about medicine.
“When we take the medicines out to the patients we can directly talk about medicine, we don't have to talk about the charges, which is what we've been doing previously.
“We've become a bit of a budget advisor to some extent and it's been really nice not to have that conversation.”
Customers had been happier with the change and not having to think about costs, Wong said.
“When patients come into the pharmacy to collect medicine they're usually unwell ... they're not really thinking clear and you tell them there's a charge for their medicine, they just couldn't believe it. Sometimes it's unexpected.”
People sometimes found in the past they could not afford an antibiotic and a painkiller at the same time, she said, and relied on the pharmacist for advice.
"What's the better one to take when you only have a limited budget? And that's been a very common conversation at the till for pharmacists and it’s such a relief that we didn't have to do it anymore for the last three months.”
National's plan does allow that some low income people on community service cards would be eligible, but Wong said that would not cover all those in need.
"We've honestly seen people that qualify for community services card that haven't got one because the system can be tricky to navigate for those disadvantaged population.
"We definitely have patients saying things like if I don't have to pay for my medicine I can buy toothpaste for my children, I can go to the grocery store and put the money into grocery instead.
"People do fall through the gap, and that will definitely happen with this policy that National is proposing."
Asked if National reversed course on their plan what kind of effect that could have on the savings meant to go toward new cancer treatments, Wong said there could be other ways to fund the cancer treatments.
"Certainly I would love to see more funding for health.
"I don't think ring-fencing co-payment is the answer but then, that's my opinion. I think there's definitely other ways of doing it and it doesn't have to be a disadvantage of everyday people."
