Prescriptions
In New Zealand, General Practitioners (GPs) do not dispense medicines directly. Instead, they provide written prescriptions or scripts (orders for medicine) that you take to a registered pharmacist.
Most of the bigger shopping centres have several pharmacies, so there are plenty to choose from. .
You can present your prescription at any pharmacy, but repeat prescriptions can be obtained only from the pharmacy that issued your first prescription. Otherwise, you will need to obtain a new prescription from your GP.
Standard costs
Prescription medicines are free for children under six years old. For everyone else, there is a small prescription cost if the medicine is subsidised by the health service. Medicines that are not fully subsidised may cost more.
You may be able to pay less for prescriptions if you have a Community Services Card, a High Use Health Card or a Pharmaceutical Subsidy Card.
Non-prescription medicines
Pharmacists can offer you advice, often free, on medicines and on some health problems. They can also sell medicines that do not need a prescription.
After hours service
If you need urgent medicine outside normal shopping hours, you can go to an Urgent Pharmacy. These are open until 10:00pm or 11:00pm. You will find them listed under ‘Urgent Pharmacies’ in the ‘Hospitals & other health service providers’ section in the front of the White Pages.
