Lay summary
Since the introduction of the New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy in 2001 there has been a growing emphasis on enhancing primary health care services in order to keep people well within the community and to address health inequalities. Current government policy also emphasises the need for professional roles to develop further to make the best use of all practitioners’ skills. This role development includes making optimal use of community pharmacists’ skills, recognising that they are medicines experts. This proposed realist evaluation research will use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how new models of community pharmacy are being implemented in New Zealand and their contribution to primary health care service delivery, health, and health system outcomes in New Zealand.