February 2024

A FORMER PHARMACIST has been stripped of his registration and ordered to pay $55,000 in legal fees by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for sharing misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine and heckling former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, forcing her to shut down a press conference.

Pharmacist Steve Thompson recently trained as a health coach and tells Paulette Crowley how it has shifted his thinking about healthcare, even if the concept isn’t easy to incorporate into the business

PHARMAC BOARD CHAIR Steve Maharey has resigned.

The delisting date for cilazapril has been pushed out to mid2024, Pharmac reports.

NEW ZEALAND HAS 198 new pharmacists after 86 per cent of interns who sat the intern Assessment Centre in November passed. The result is a big improvement on the November 2022 Assessment Centre pass rate which saw just 47 per cent of the 208 interns who sat it being successful.

Clinical pharmacist Katrina Azer considers what proprietors and independent pharmacists seek and suggests the sector should rally and define its goals

Medsafe group manager Chris James details the work done by the border investigation team

Community pharmacist Claire Salter took part in a full-immersion Māori language course run at the University of Waikato’s Tauranga campus in 2022. She discusses her reasons for learning te reo as a Pākehā. From April, having a basic understanding of te reo Māori will be a requirement for all pharmacists under the Pharmacy Council’s competency standards

Moore Markhams Auckland director Jonathan Roberts says pharmacists are working harder than ever before

Nearly 80 per cent more New Zealand pharmacists moved to Australia in the 2022/23 year, compared to the previous year. A recruiter expects more will decide to cross the Ditch.