Pharmac invites Expressions of Interest (EOI) from general practices to participate in a Practitioner Supply Order (PSO) pilot

18 November 2024

Update Medicines

We are seeking interest from non-rural general practices to take part in a pilot allowing access to a wider range of medicines and related products on Practitioners Supply Order (PSO).

Purpose of the pilot

This pilot would allow participating practices to have the same PSO allowance as rural practices. It aims to test if allowing non-rural general practices to order a wider range of products on PSO would be beneficial in circumstances where there is:

a mix of prescribing and non-prescribing health professionals providing patient care, including the administration of medicines
limited access to a prescriber

The pilot will help Pharmac to understand the effect of population sizes, demographics, and practice profiles on PSO ordering patterns. This will inform potential changes to how we use the PSO mechanism in future.

About PSOs

The purpose of the PSO mechanism is to ensure that stock is available for all general practices for:

emergency use
teaching and demonstration purposes
provision to certain patient groups where an individual prescription is not practical or
products that require specialist administration.

More information about supply on PSO can be found in Part 1 of the General Rules of the Pharmaceutical Schedule

Rural and non-rural practices have different PSO arrangements

Pharmac funds specified medicines and devices in the community on PSO for non-rural practices. This works differently to the rural PSO mechanism, which allows a wider range and quantity of products to be ordered by prescribers working in rural and remote areas.

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is responsible for classifying general practices as rural, and this is also the classification Pharmac uses for funded supply of medicines on rural PSO.

How will the pilot work?

We expect the pilot to run in each practice for a calendar year. The start date for each practice is flexible, but all practices would need to start by 1 April 2025.

Participating practices will be able to order medicines under the Rural PSO mechanism during the pilot. This means practices:

can order any community medicine, provided all the relevant requirements are met. (Medicines with Special Authorities or other restrictions are generally excluded)
can order quantities that are reasonable for up to one month's supply in the practice’s normal circumstances must use one nominated pharmacy for supply of PSO medicines.

Practices participating in the pilot can provide medicines to specific patients where an individual prescription is not practicable. This includes provision to patients where access to a prescriber is limited. Pharmac will:

work with practices to gather baseline data and any other information needed
enable the nominated pharmacies to supply participating practices on a Rural PSO basis
ensure that health sector auditors (the Health Payments Integrity Team) know about participating practices and pharmacies, and their exemption from the usual PSO requirements
talk with practices at the end of the pilot period to understand the impact of the pilot.

There will be no cost to participating practices.

The pilot will end on the date agreed between Pharmac and each participating practice. Normal PSO arrangements will apply after the end of the pilot.

What would your practice need to do during the pilot?

We may ask participating practices to supply us with some additional information to help us understand patterns of ordering and use in the practice. We expect that this would be limited to an initial assessment of PSO products held.

What will Pharmac do with the results?

We intend to use information we collect about PSO ordering patterns from participating practices, along with general information about the practices, and their population to help us inform any future changes to how Pharmac manages the funding of pharmaceuticals on PSO.

PSO prescribing and dispensing data is not linked to individual patients. Data on PSO ordering is already collected and used by Pharmac.

We would consult with the sector on any proposed changes to PSOs that might result from this work.

Pilot EOI process

Pharmac invites Expressions of Interests (EOI) from non-rural general practices to support a Practitioner Supply Order (PSO) pilot.

Why not rural practices? Rural practices already have access to the wider range of medicines and devices that we are proposing to allow access to through this pilot.

For the duration of the pilot, participating non-rural general practices would be allowed to order a wider range of medicines and related products from the Pharmaceutical Schedule than are currently available on PSO.

The EOI will be assessed by Pharmac and, as a result of that assessment, practices will be notified whether their EOI has been accepted or not. Pharmac expects to follow the process set out below.

A separate agreement, outlining the key terms for the pilot will follow for successful EOI practices.

Practice eligibility

Practices must not be classified as rural by Health New Zealand.
If practices are a multi-site group or network of practices, please nominate only one member site or practice to participate.

Anticipated timeframe

Submit your expression of interest by 5pm, Friday 13 December 2024.
EOIs submitted after this time will only be considered at Pharmac’s discretion.
Pharmac anticipates practices will be notified of the EOI outcome by 31 January 2025.

These timeframes may be extended, without notice being required from Pharmac.

Submit your expression of interest

EOI Assessment

To ensure a good cross-section of non-rural practices, Pharmac will consider the following factors:
1. practice population size
2. demographic mix
3. socioeconomic deprivation
4. practices with services led by non-prescribing health professionals
Up to ten non-rural general practices may participate in the pilot.

EOI Process Completion

The EOI process will be complete once Pharmac has notified:

Practices who have been selected to participate in the pilot, and
Practices who have not been selected to participate in the pilot.

Who to contact

If you have any questions about the pilot or the expression of interest, email enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz

EOI terms and conditions

Pharmac reserves the right:
1. to make adjustments to the above EOI process as it considers appropriate, at any time during the process, provided that it notifies practices affected by those changes;
2. not to accept any EOI;
3. to seek clarification of any EOI;
4. to suspend or cancel this EOI process.
5. to terminate this EOI process at any time, by notifying practices who submitted EOIs, and
6. to re-advertise for EOIs.
Pharmac will consider the EOI process and any information exchanged for the purpose of the EOI, excluding information already in the public domain, to be confidential to it and its employees, legal advisors and other consultants, the Ministry of Health and Health NZ (Confidential Information). However, the practice acknowledges that it may be necessary or appropriate for Pharmac to release Confidential Information:
1. pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982; or
2. otherwise pursuant to Pharmac’s public law or any other legal obligations.

Pharmac may consult with the practice before deciding whether to disclose Confidential Information for the purposes described in sub-clauses (i) or (ii) above. The practice acknowledges, however, that it is for Pharmac to decide, in its absolute discretion, whether it is necessary or appropriate to disclose information for any of the above purposes, provided that Pharmac shall act in good faith in disclosing any Confidential Information.