FROM NEXT YEAR, Te Whatu Ora will pay graduate pharmacists who choose to work in rural areas nearly $12,000 per year for their first three years of work, to entice them to stay in these hard-to-staff areas.

Antimicrobial resistance has been identified as one of the top-10 threats to human health by WHO, and a small group of hospital pharmacists are leading the charge in New Zealand to combat the growing problem.

Special Authority prescriptions are creating a bureaucratic nightmare for pharmacists and causing delays in patients getting their medicine. Jonathan Chilton-Towle investigates

Te Whatu Ora is planning to offer pharmacy owners 5 per cent more funding this year. Jonathan Chilton-Towle gauges reaction

More details of the planned minor-ailments scheme have been revealed but it will not be available in all regions. Jonathan Chilton-Towle reports

For a brief period in February and March, pharmacies in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle were able to offer patients free prescriptions. Jonathan Chilton-Towle reports on their experience 

Contracts aren’t exciting or sexy, but they do make the world go round.