But Gonville Health Pharmacy owner Leighton Souness said they were not seeing people seeking GP advice from pharmacists but he had noticed some patients struggling to pay for prescriptions.
“Main concerns are for those patients or families that do not qualify for Community Services Cards potentially picking and choosing their medications, he said.
Gonville Health Pharmacy is connected to Gonville Health, which is a Very Low-Cost Access (VLCA) practice that receives extra funding to maintain patient fees at a low level.
Pharmacy 145 on Victoria owner Evan Lee had noticed more people coming in for GP advice.
“When someone comes in here and presents with symptoms, the pharmacist always has to see the severity of the problem and whether to refer them to a doctor.
“This is nothing new it’s always been like this... but some of it can be attributed to GP overload.”
He wanted to see stronger health education promoting healthier lifestyle choices for patients to prevent them from having to access primary care for lower-level conditions.
Simpson said the kind of questions patients were asking included: “Is it bad enough for me to bother the doctor?”.
“It’s hard to get into the GP practices and I feel for the GP practices, their receptionists and nurses.
“I think absolutely they’re [patients] using us to triage if they need to see a doctor.”
Pharmaceutical Society president Michael Hammond said the increase in requests for healthcare advice had gone up for both minor conditions and major health conditions.
“Pharmacists are really seeing a lot more serious health concerns raised with them than they were previously, which is really increasing their workloads.”
He said pharmacy was an untapped workforce and if pharmacists were appropriately funded they could provide a higher level of care.
“They’re under so many different pressures that they can’t spend as much time with a patient as they might like to.”
Fewer pharmacists in rural areas
Hammond said there were workforce shortages across the country for pharmacies, even more so in the rural areas.
“We know that in Whanganui the hospital is struggling with recruitment and so is community pharmacy.
“They’ve [pharmacists] told us they don’t have enough pharmacists to keep open for longer hours.”
Simpson said pharmacy was underfunded and understaffed and pharmacists “were like gold”.
Anderson said if he retired there would only be one pharmacist at his workplace, which would make it impossible to manage the workload.
“I know it’s not my problem but I do feel guilty about that because if I wasn’t here... there’s too much work for one person.”
Simpson said for a pharmacy to open its doors there legally had to be a pharmacist on-site which differed from other retail businesses and made it harder to cover shifts.
Souness said it was very difficult to get cover.
Anderson said the shortage of pharmacists was exacerbated in rural areas because often young graduates chose to stay in larger cities.
More graduates seemed willing to work as locums rather than take up full-time positions, he said.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
