General news

The Pharmacy Council is seeking feedback on the draft Competence Standards for the Pharmacy Profession and supporting Guidance Notes. Practitioners in all three scopes of practice must meet these competence standards.


Council is responsible for setting standards of clinical competence, cultural competence, and ethical conduct for pharmacists.  


It is timely that the standards are reviewed and updated. This will ensure they are fit for purpose and give effect to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 


We have engaged with membership organisations and other stakeholders. Thank you to everyone who has provided input to date, including the independent advice of our Te Tiriti Advisory Group (which was previously named the Māori Advisory Group).


We also recently appointed a high-calibre team to the Competence Standards Working and Advisory Group, who are supporting the development of these new standards for consultation. The group is made up of the following people, who I would like to thank for their assistance on the draft standards, and for the work yet to come to finalise the new standards:

–   Belinda Robinson

–   Professor Dominic O’Sullivan

–   Kylie Head

–   Dr Linda Bryant

–   Lisa Kremer –   Professor Michael Dooley

The final Competence Standards and Guidance are planned to come into effect from mid 2024 but will published in early 2023 to allow for an appropriate “bed in” time, communications, and necessary actions with key stakeholders.

Our process to date, and how to have your say are provided in our consultation document, which is provided on the website at: https://pharmacycouncil.org.nz/public/consultations/.

Consultation closes Thursday 27 October 2022. When you are ready, you have the choice of providing your response via email (to consultations@pharmacycouncil.org.nz) or via Survey Monkey.