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Thread: NZ Prescription Charges

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Sunny Otaki
    Posts
    79

    Default NZ Prescription Charges

    Thought this might be of interest to anyone who wants info on the prescription and medicine prices in NZ. I've just started working in a pharmacy and after being used to the system in the UK where you either pay for your scripts or you are exempt the system here is extremely complicated.

    www.pharmac.govt.nz gives detail of the prescription charges. Look under section 2, Pharmaceutical Schedule.
    Some prescribed medicines are subsidised by the government meaning you only pay the prescription charge. Others are partially subsidised or not subsidised at all (here you will have to pay part or all of the medicine cost as well as the prescription charge). Also different brands of the same drug may have different subsidy status e.g for Salbutamol inhalers, the government fully subsidise the generic make (in this case Salamol) but only partially subsidise the Ventolin brand.
    You can check a medicines subsidy status on the same website under Interactive Schedule. Just type in the medicine name.

    The range of prescribed medicines seems to be alot smaller than we're used to in the UK and many are only available if prescribed by a specialist not the GP. This can affect their subsidy status aswell. Also there is no medical exemption list so you still pay the prescription charge for things like thyroxine and insulin (both are subsidised though).

    A quick guide to the charges for subsidised medicines :
    Adults $15 per item, Children 6-17yrs $10, Children under 6 are free and contraceptive scripts are $3. There may be a variation in these prices if the surgery you register with is an access PHO practice, but that's a whole different story.

    Hope this helps.

    k-k

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    QLD(NZ-Greenhills-E Linc-UK)
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    1,515

    Default

    cheers, hope my lads skin isnt as dry then when we get there!....or I will be shipping tubs of E45 out instead of clothes

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Cambridge ex- Liverpool
    Posts
    3,562

    Default

    Thanks for a very informative thread k-k!

    Steve

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    UK-NZ-OZ-UK !!
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    1,937

    Default

    Thank you so much for that post.

    Funnily enough, my hubby and I were only saying the other day that we knew nothing about prescription charges.

    Well, thanks to you, now we do.

    Paraparaumu Beach sounds very exotic and inviting - especially when I'm looking out of my window into a very grey and rainy Easter Monday morning.

    Hope you are settling in well and all is good for you.

    Julie

    xx

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Waikanae via Yorkshire
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    363

    Default

    Karen - You're scaring me now - what have I got to look forward to??!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Sunny Otaki
    Posts
    79

    Default

    Jon,

    The answer to your question - a life of people complaining about the cost of their prescriptions..... wait a minute that's just like in the UK.

    It'll be a better class of customer in Paraparaumu though.

    Karen

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    WELLINGTON, New Zealand
    Posts
    39

    Default

    K-K

    I´m moving to NZ next year and I´m using a contraceptive named EVRA. It´s a patch that sends the hormones through the skin.

    Have you ever heard of it in NZ? I just got a new prescription in Brasil for another 1 year use of use. Is my prescription valid in NZ (if translated)??


    Thanks!

    [ ]´s


    Vivis

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Waikanae via Yorkshire
    Posts
    363

    Default

    See my answer to your post in the Goods, Services etc. forum


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