Describing the consumer profile of different types of community pharmacy in Aotearoa New Zealand

IntroductionAotearoa New Zealand has a range of community pharmacies; independent, corporate, hybrid, and mail-order, each with differing service delivery models. Corporate and hybrid pharmacies do not charge the NZ$5.00 co-payment on standard prescriptions; however, prescription co-payments were universally removed from 1 July 2023.AimThis research aims to describe the consumer profiles of Aotearoa New Zealand's different types of community pharmacies prior to the removal of the prescription co-payment.MethodsA nationwide retrospective observational study linked 1-year of dispensing data (1 March 2022-28 February 2023) from the Pharmaceutical Collection to patient enrolment data using a National Health Index (NHI) number to identify the demographic details of people who use the different pharmacy types. People were assigned to a particular type of pharmacy if they collected at least 70% of their prescriptions from there; if they did not meet this threshold, they were defined as mixed users.ResultsIndependent pharmacies had an older customer base and fewer Asian users compared to other pharmacy types. Hybrid pharmacies served a greater proportion of Pacific peoples and those from areas of high deprivation. Maori made up relatively equal proportions of users across all pharmacy types. Areas without major cities had fewer corporate pharmacies and only four hybrid pharmacies were identified outside of Auckland.DiscussionThere appears to be differences in the consumer profiles of the different pharmacy types. These results will serve as a comparison to how removing prescription co-payments shifts patients' behaviour. What is already known: There are a range of different types of community pharmacy in Aotearoa New Zealand; however universal definitions have not been established. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, there is inequitable access to medicine where prescription co-payments act as a barrier. Although the decision to universally remove prescription co-payments should help, we do not know who is already accessing free prescriptions through corporate and hybrid pharmacies. What this study adds: This research provides a current consumer profile for each type of community pharmacy in Aotearoa New Zealand, which can serve as a comparator to assess how removing prescription co-payments changes consumer habits. Information is provided regarding the geographic distribution of the different types of community pharmacy throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.