Background to IPANZ:
I started IPANZ a few years ago originally as a closed facebook support group for locum pharmacists as I found that as a locum it could get quite lonely constantly moving around and you could often find yourself working sole charge with no idea where to go for support or help. I extended the group to employee pharmacists due to demand for a support group for employment and professional issues and a perceived lack of representation of non-owners at the negotiating table for professional services; after all, why should contracts for services only be extended to those wealthy enough to afford to buy a pharmacy and all that entails? Especially when many of those contract holders are now not even pharmacists at all but major corporations. On this philosophy, myself and a few other passionate individuals did the hard yards to create a constitution and become an incorporated society – the Independent Pharmacists Association of New Zealand incorporated. Our key point of difference to ALL other groups at the negotiating table (in community pharmacy) is that we do not allow anyone with a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy to become a member- even if you don’t hold shares in a pharmacy but work on a bonus scheme this still as to be declared as a conflict of interest and you may only be an associate member. A summary of what we offer at IPANZ:
- Basic support in employment-relations and contractual issues.
- 50% off your first year of membership fee if you join APEX union.
- Access to Safe Harbour for raising sensitive workplace issues – we offer a confidential ear and moral support if you feel you have an issue to raise about an employer or colleague. We collate data anonymously and report to MOH and PCNZ ensuring all identifiers are removed to ensure that Pharmacies and Pharmacists are meeting their contractual and ethical obligations.
- Police vetting free of charge .
- Access to materials developed by IPANZ (e.g. invoicing guidelines, exclusive insights to survey data, professional resources. We run a survey every two years on remuneration and work conditions).
- Mentoring and help in finding a Verifier Pharmacist under the new recertification framework.
- Monthly members-only discussion panels on Discord where we have guest speakers to cover hot topics, mostly on career progression and CPD. Upcoming topics are the new CPD framework, Health Coaching as a Career Path for pharmacists and the new Healthcare NZ Framework and possible roles for Independent Pharmacists in the future.
- Lobbying on behalf of Independent Pharmacists. Members of our executive team meet once a month with the MOH to feedback on behalf of our members.
- Networking events and a free to attend AGM.
There are a lot of representative groups in the pharmacy sector in New Zealand; however we are the ONLY group that does not have pharmacy owners as members thus we offer a unique perspective to the governance groups of pharmacy as we are focussed on pharmacists being clinicians rather than retailers. The executive team all take part in providing mentorship advice and we have a wealth of experience to offer our junior members- almost everyone on the executive holds post grad qualifications and we work in a wide range of roles. We also are all extremely passionate individuals as none of us are paid for our work with IPANZ. Despite all of us working for free, we still have running costs for our organisation and are currently seeking sponsorship and new ‘perks’ for our members.