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A petition with over 100,000 signatures calling for a substantial increase in budget and independent review of Pharmac was handed over to the New Zealand Parliament on Wednesday. The petition was submitted by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA), which demanded doubling of Pharmac’s budget next week and tripling it in 2 years to NZ$3 billion.
Patient Voice Aotearoa is a group of patients, nurses, whanau, volunteers, and voluntary organisations that work together to fight for New Zealand patients' needs.
Many issues have been identified that involve Pharmac and its funding of medicines. Pharmac has been alleged of not adopting international guidelines, not laying a right timeframe for deciding medicine’s efficacy, and to fund the same if the medicine is deemed effective.
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Pharmac is one of the OECD's least well-funded medicine-purchasing companies. Pharmac has a waiting list of over 100 medications. Kiwi have just 33% of Australia's per capita medication budget. This has far-reaching and widespread consequences.
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Kiwis also actively participated in a national ‘Lie Down for Life’ Wednesday in Auckland, Whakatane, Whangarei, New Plymouth, Greymouth, Hastings, Dunedin, Palmerston North and Christchurch. A list of nearly 50 New Zealanders who died as a result of a lack of access to medication was read out at each gathering.
No amount of money enough to provide all medications
Pharmac saves investors hundreds of millions of dollars per year by using its buying ability as a sole buyer to negotiate discounts.
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Sarah Fitt, Pharmac's chief executive stated that the drug-purchasing organisation was aware of patients' concerns, but it was its responsibility to look at all the facts and make a decision that was in the best interest of all New Zealanders.
In March, Health Minister Andrew Little had stated that Pharmac's budget was not up for scrutiny, because no amount of money could provide all the drugs to satisfy all the needs of every individual.
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He also noted that the budget was ultimately a set of political trade-offs and political decisions, so a review might be a pointless move.
New Zealand at the bottom of developed world in funding medicines
The petition for increased Pharmac funding is to bring New Zealand in line with the drug spending of other OECD countries.
New Zealand trails behind when it comes to spending on medicine as a nation and the same has an effect on health results.
PVA Chairperson, Malcolm Mulholland, stated that when it came to financing drugs that saved, extended, or improved lives, New Zealand was at the lowest of the developing world. Kiwis are dying as a direct consequence of this, he added.
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He called it as an embarrassment because it contradicted the new government's 'Be-Kind' rhetoric. New Zealanders would keep suffering without proper access to modern drugs until the government intervenes and takes some action, he added.
