THREE KEY FACTS: National campaigned on funding 13 cancer treatments available in Australia, but these were not announced as part of Budget 2024 . An alliance of haematologists and health groups wrote to the Prime Minister and other ministers, urging them to honour the pre-election pledge to the 21,000 Kiwis with blood cancers. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has expressed regret the new drugs couldn’t be funded in this Budget but restated her determination to see the promise honoured.
AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup Steve Maharey is a former chair of Pharmac and an ex-Labour Government minister OPINION The Government has a problem of its own making when it comes to Pharmac . To recap. Pharmac was established in 1993 by National to buy pharmaceuticals ( medicines ).
Anyone wanting Pharmac to buy a medicine makes an application. Pharmac then goes through a process (this is all on their website) of assessing the medicine then ranking it on an “options for funding” list. Pharmac negotiates with the relevant pharmaceutical company and settles on a price.
It works within a fixed budget, employs 150 people and gets advice from a network of some 400 hundred health professionals. Because the fixed budget is never enough to buy all the medicines people want, Pharmac has attracted a lot of criticism. Its decisions are said to be too slow and lacking transparency, its staff are heartless – the list goes on.
Any organisation can improve its performance (and.