Hawke’s Bay pharmacies’ safety concerns as pseudoephedrine makes comeback

Pharmacies in Hawke’s Bay are reflecting industry concerns about the reintroduction of non-prescription pseudoephedrine products with a reluctance to reveal plans amid the seasonal run on remedies for hay fever, colds and flu.

There used to be up to 10 pharmacies in the Napier CBD. Now there's just one. Photo / Paul Taylor

For the past week pharmacies have, under the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Act 2024, had the choice on whether to stock pseudoephedrine products.

They were banned, other than by prescription, since 2011 because of increasing crime around the use of pseudoephedrine in illicit manufacture of methamphetamine.

At the time pharmacies - which are mainly suburban-based with just one now remaining in inner city Napier - worried about an increasing number of burglaries targeting the products and welcomed the ban.

They were banned near the end of the first term of Prime Minister Sir John Key in 2011.

Now about 12 products have been sanctioned for return to sale as a result of legislation which reclassifies pseudoephedrine from a Class B2 controlled drug to Class C3 with no requirement for controlled drug safe storage.

It’s in line with an Act party pre-election pledge endorsed in the Government coalition agreement.

While a prescription is no longer required, a consultation is needed with a pharmacist to establish the validity of a customer’s need.

One Hawke’s Bay pharmacist, who asked to be anonymous because they did not want their premises known as one that stocked pseudoephedrine, told Hawke’s Bay Today they had questions about why they should have to make the judgement.

He said a customer can’t “simply” come in and say “give me some pseudoephedrine”, which had already been the approach of one customer this week.

“If we don’t know them we may not serve them.”

Pharmaceutical Society chief executive Helen Morgan-Banda said while pseudoephedrine is a “very useful therapeutic agent” its reintroduction had raised concerns about the safety of pharmacy teams.

“PSNZ did call for a real-time monitoring system so that when pharmacists supplied a drug like pseudoephedrine, they could log into a system that would show them if the person had already been supplied with it,” she said in April.

“That hasn’t happened,” another Hawke’s Bay pharmacist told Hawke’s Bay Today. They said systems already in place, such as Covid vaccine tracing, could be adapted for the purpose.

Morgan-Banda said the society’s focus had turned to looking at how it could offer education resources to aid pharmacists in having “appropriate conversations with patients about the right medicine for their presenting condition.”

“In particular, our educators have been tasked with focusing on building or adapting courses that can support pharmacists to have positive patient relationships and confidently handle challenging interactions,” she said.

Society president Michael Hammond said on Wednesday its Practice and Policy team had in the last week issued educational material on how members can help prepare.

“If pharmacy teams do have concerns about drug-seeking or practices such as pseudo shopping, when recording patient details during the transaction they can ask for proof of photo ID, if appropriate,” he said.

“Also, when selling the product, they could take the guidance of selling the smallest quantity possible on each occasion,” he said. “They could also refuse supply if there was evidence of excessive amounts of pseudoephedrine being purchased.”

Pharmacists could also limit their stock or the number of products on display, he said.