Sending a message about community pharmacy

Sending a message about community pharmacy

Full page advertisements in today’s daily newspapers are to highlight the valuable and essential role community pharmacists play in primary health care, the Guild said today.

Guild president Karen Crisp says the advertisments are a reminder to all of the Guild’s stakeholders and the public about the quality care pharmacists provide and the many roles they undertake in delivering health care.

“Community pharmacists work in the health frontline and are often the first port of call for patients when they have health issues and need a health professional to discuss it with.”

Ms Crisp says the advertisements in today’s New Zealand Herald and Dominion Post newspapers serve to underline this message to the Government and to the Guild’s many health sector partners of the value of community pharmacy.

The advertisements are based on a new promotional poster campaign which gives added impetus to the Guild’s election year awareness campaign. Members have been encouraged to display the poster in their pharmacies as part of the Be Bold campaign which is designed to encourage pharmacists to be more assertive in speaking out about the big issues facing community pharmacy.

The “speech bubble advertisement and poster shows just some of the many ways community pharmacists help their patients and customers.

“The fact there is an election this year makes it even more critical for community pharmacists to stand up and be noticed. The sector is at a crossroads and is moving towards a mixed dispensing, service-driven model that would give community pharmacists greater opportunity to utilise their skills while saving the health system funds.”

Ms Crisp says community pharmacy is a successful public-private partnership that delivers high quality outcomes but the views of community pharmacists are often overlooked because they tend to “just get on with the job” of helping patients. To see what the poster and advertisments look like, visit the Guild’s Facebook page or click on the Facebook link on the Guild’s homepage at http://www.pgnz.org.nz.

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