Lay summary
The Pacific population in Oamaru and the surrounding Waitaki region has grown rapidly and continues to grow. An estimated 20% of the population are now Pacific. Pacific people often face barriers to accessing and using medicines appropriately, and those who have migrated to New Zealand may be unfamiliar with the health system and the role of pharmacists in New Zealand. In this project we will organise a hui to bring the Pacific community and community pharmacy staff together, outside of the pharmacy walls. The goal is to allow a space in which they can interact more informally, learn more about each other, and discuss issues they face related to pharmacy services, access and understanding. Based on these discussions, we will then develop a proposal for a research project to address these. This will take a quality improvement approach, with issues being identified, studied, interventions being developed, trialled and evaluated.