5:31 pm today

Doctors can prescribe medication for 12 months from next year

From Checkpoint, 5:31 pm today

For people with long-term health conditions - like asthma, diabetes, and high blood pressure - renewing a prescription will get easier and cheaper. From next year doctors can prescribe medication for 12 months - up from three months. Health minister Simeon Brown says this will save people paying for GPs to issue repeat prescriptions. Reporter Jimmy Ellingham asked people outside a Palmerston North pharmacy what they thought of the move.