Cromwell resident Bernie McKone has been appointed to be an officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to the pharmaceutical sector.

Bernie has been contributing to the health and pharmaceutical sector in the lower South Island since 1990.

His career path was cemented early in life and he’s fulfilled a vast range of professional roles since then.  

He credits the influence of family friend, Brian Wilkinson, for sparking his interest in this field.

“Brian was a good friend of my father’s and was the pharmacist in Westport, where we lived. When I finished studying in Dunedin, he encouraged me to pursue pharmacy,” Bernie told the Central App.

“I interned in Greymouth and eventually went to Gore to locum for a week - and ended up staying 35 years.”

He was appointed to the New Zealand College of Pharmacists Academic Advisory Board from 1990 to 1995 and was a board member of the New Zealand Pharmacy Education and Research Foundation from 1993 to 2004. 

Further appointments included a member of the Ministry of Health’s Registering Authority of Pharmacists and the Medicines Classification Committee between 1997 to 2003. 

Bernie led the Pharmacy Professions Governance implementation of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and helped set up clinical pharmacist services in general practices in Gore and Invercargill. 

“I’m very proud we got this successful, nationwide pilot set up from a rural base. The DHB [District Health Board] went on to fully fund these positions around the country.”

He contributed to normalising conversation around men’s health by appearing on radio shows and discussing topics including prostate health and blood pressure, running men’s health stalls at events such as Field Days and created the Men’s Health Expert website. 

“I got a call from my friend, Jamie Mckay, who hosts a NewstalkZB radio show, saying a guest speaker had pulled out and would I fill in.  

“It was at a field day, the subject was prostate cancer, so I said ‘yes, happy to’. We were set up next to a beer stand and you could hear the beer being poured. I joked that’s what it sounds like when you go to the toilet and you’ve got prostate cancer.

“It was a good light-hearted way to get into some serious discussion”.

Bernie was a board member of Gore Hospital from 2002 to 2004, chair of New Zealand College of Pharmacists from 2000 to 2013, and president of the Pharmaceutical Society from 2000 to 2005.

Within his wider community, Bernie has been president of Southland Football Referees Association, chair of Southland Rugby Board, and has led many projects through Gore Rotary Club.

In 2019, he sold his Gore pharmacy of 38 years, Quins, and with wife Pippa moved to live in Cromwell after many years holidaying there.

Bernie has maintained his role as managing director of Waikiki Pharmacy in Invercargill and travels down once or twice a month.

He is the current president of the local Rotary Club and any spare time is spent in the garden, wine tasting, the occasional game of golf, and singing and acting.

His next role is in the Waiata Theatre Productions show, Les Misérables in Clyde, May 2023.

“My parents taught me to never turn down an opportunity. If someone asks you to do something, say yes”.

Bernie has also been awarded the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand’s Pharmacist of the Year in 2015, and the Pharmaceutical Society’s Gold Medal in 2021.