“Pharmacies need a funding structure that works on the basis of dispensing and clinical services alone,” says Zoom Health director David Taylor. As at September 2025, 1,806,836 New Zealanders were using community pharmacy services each month, up from 1,693,515 in September 2022, an increase of more than 113,000 patients in three years. [2]Yet the number of community pharmacies has declined. [4]The rate declined by around 1.5 percent over the past year, despite continued population growth, effectively reducing per-capita access to pharmacy services. They say these patients are among the most reliant on consistent pharmacy access and the least able to absorb disruption.