From next year, patients will be able to get prescriptions covering 12 months, rather than the current three.
Announcing the move, the Health Minister Simeon Brown said it would put money in patients' pockets as they wouldn't have to pay for long term medications four times a year, and reduce GPs' paperwork.
But GPs have raised concerns that patient safety could be at risk and that recommendations to extend the prescribing period to six months were ignored.
Pharmacists say there will be benefits for some patients, but also funding implications, an increased chance of wastage and misunderstandings over those medicines not included, such as controlled drugs.
Kathryn speaks to Luke Bradford the Medical Director of the Royal College of New Zealand GPs and Andrew Gaudin the chief executive of the Pharmacy Guild.
