Otago and Auckland pharmacy schools are joining forces to push the interests of their profession.
Today, they are holding their first joint forum, in Wellington, to work out how to find new funding and responsibilities.
Instead of just dispensing pills, pharmacists want more direct contact with patients - and they want to be paid for it.
''The profession of pharmacy has been slow to deliver clinically-based services and move from a product-based model to a patient-focused model,'' a statement about the forum says.
''While the reasons for this lack of movement are complex, one of the impediments has been the lack of remuneration and the uncertainty about the value of evidence.
''As such, the profession needs a co-ordinated effort to collect the right evidence that will propel pharmacy forward,''
University of Otago School of Pharmacy dean Prof Carlo Marra said the profession needed to find the areas where it could be cost effective.
It meant things like managing hypertension in patients, which worked well in his native Canada, and in New Zealand, some pharmacists were now allowed to give flu vaccines.
''We have to be cognisant that we get everyone on board to generate the necessary evidence that shows the Government and other healthcare payers that these are the things that pharmacy can do, and they represent good value for money.
''Or some things might not be good value for money - and it's important for us to find the areas that are actually good areas to put investment.''
Pharmacists should avoid being ''cheap doctors'', and instead be part of the patient's wider health team.
Prof Marra said it made sense for the pharmacy schools to start working together because New Zealand was a small country.
Ministry of Health staff and other health sector members had been invited to the forum.
