If safety concerns about the new pharmacy contract were valid, it would not have gone ahead, Health Minister Tony Ryall says.
This week, Mosgiel pharmacist Jenny Kerr-Mackenzie revealed fears the new funding model pushed pharmacists towards revenue-gathering activities.
This would compel some to rush dispensing tasks, for which they would be paid a $1 handling fee instead of $5.30 an item. This risked patient safety through increased dispensing errors, she said.
Asked earlier this week if pharmacists had approached him with specific safety concerns, Mr Ryall's office said, by email, that 85% of pharmacists had signed the new contract.
"This shows there is a general agreement across the pharmacy sector of the need to move from the current medicine-focused model to a patient-focused model. We urge pharmacies who haven't yet signed to engage constructively with their local district health board to have their concerns addressed.
"This agreement would not have proceeded if there were valid concerns that patient safety would be compromised."
Pressed on whether pharmacists had specifically mentioned dispensing safety, a spokeswoman said by email: "The minister has received some letters and emails about the new community pharmacy agreement. Many have generally been in favour of the new agreement, but there have been a few concerns raised around some of the technical details, including the dispensing fee."
Labour MP and health spokeswoman Maryan Street said several pharmacists had contacted her with fears error rates would increase because of the new pharmacy-funding model.
"There will be more dispensing errors. The pressure they're under requires them to dispense in shorter time," Ms Street said.
She feared the sector would end up in "a bit of chaos" because of the Pharmacy Services Agreement taking effect this month, which she said was really about cost-cutting.
Pharmacists would be looking to "bridge the gap" between the scrapped $5.30 dispensing fee, and the $1 handling fee.
As well as trying to sign up patients to a new "long-term care" register, pharmacists would probably add charges for services mostly provided free at present, such as double-checking a prescription. This raised the spectre of user-pays, which when added to the prescription co-payment rise from $3 to $5 next January, was bad news for the public, Ms Street said.
