New Zealand’s Community Pharmacy businesses have faced unprecedented challenges in the past year with COVID having a varied impact, which is evident in the 2021 Moore Markhams New Zealand Pharmacy Benchmarking survey report just released.
Along with increased workloads, as pharmacies became primary frontline health destinations while doctors shut their doors and went virtual, there were often additional costs involved to meet the related public health and safety requirements for continuing to operate safely.
Pharmacies were compensated for some of these costs with the Community Pharmacy Funding payment received on 1 April 2020. This also helped to compensate for lost revenue during the early stages of the national lockdown back in April 2020, where many pharmacies experienced reduced trading activity.
While on the face of it, many of the signs for the March 2021 year appear to be positive, much of this is on the back of significant one-off factors that will not be repeated.
The comprehensive report based on data from 170 pharmacies from around the country is available from a Moore Markhams director or can be requested
here.