Pharmacies picking up overflow from busy GPs
The pressure on pharmacies is only getting worse as the price of GP appointments increases and the wait time gets longer.
The country’s healthcare sector is facing mounting pressures and heavy demand due to respiratory illnesses, including Covid-19.
Emergency departments are no longer meeting wait time targets, GPs are fully booked, and surgeries are being deferred.
Hamilton pharmacist Ian McMichael said pharmacies were taking on the overflow from GP clinics – and feeling the pinch.
He said staff were getting sick and leaving gaps in the workforce, on top of a big shortage of qualified staff. ‘‘Staff are getting sick after so long of keeping everything together. There is real pressure,’’ he said.
He said some pharmacies had been unable to open due to staff shortages, and a tight labour market. ‘‘Across the board, pharmacies are incredibly busy.’’
As access to a GP became harder, more people were coming into the pharmacy for advice, he said. Pharmacies had also taken on extra services – like RAT testing, and Covid-19 and flu vaccinations – on top of normal duties.
McMichael said it was great the unemployment rate was low at 3.2%, but something had to be done about the labour shortages in healthcare. ‘‘We desperately need more people.’’
He said the Government needed to prioritise bringing skilled migrants into the country to help refill the workforce. Staff were worn out and exhausted, and leaving the industry – some going overseas to earn more or to take a long overdue break.
With 35 years of experience to draw from, he said the industry needed to be working smarter.
Pharmacists could take on more face-to-face work, but that would need to be appropriately funded, he said. ‘‘I believe the pharmacy should be a triaging centre.’’ Pharmacists currently didn’t have time for that, he said. They were spending all their time at the dispensary making sure prescriptions were correct.
McMichael said pharmacy technicians and pharmacist prescribers could take on that work, but there were few in the country. The workforce needed to be developed so more people were being trained in these roles – allowing pharmacists to ease the burden on GPs.
Robotics could also be used to help with the medicine dispensing process, he said.