Latest news with #Pharmac
Scoop
2 days ago
- Health
- Scoop
Pharmac Continues To Engage With Consumers
Associate Minister of Health Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes the establishment of Pharmac's new consumer working group to help Pharmac help reset how it works with health consumers. "For many New Zealanders, funding for pharmaceuticals is life or death, or the difference between a life of pain and suffering or living freely,' Mr Seymour says. 'My expectation is that Pharmac should have good processes to ensure that people with an illness, their carers and family, can provide input to decision-making processes. This is part of the ACT-National Coalition Agreement. 'Pharmac hosted a Consumer Engagement Workshop in March. Patients and advocates voiced their hopes at resetting the patient – Pharmac relationship. Pharmac published a report on the findings from the workshop. 'The report recommended that the Board invite workshop participants, in association with the wider consumer-patient representative community, to select a working group. The group would work with Pharmac's Board and management to reset the relationship between Pharmac and the consumer/representative community. 'The patient advocacy community selected Dr Malcolm Mulholland to lead the consumer working group. He has worked with consumers to select the other members of the working group. These members represent patients with a wide range of health conditions. They are named at the end of this release.' 'We've waited a long time for this opportunity. The work that Pharmac does is vitally important for the health of patients and their families, and this is why getting Pharmac to work as well as it can, will be the focus of the working group,' Dr Mulholland says. 'The consumer working group met for the first time yesterday to confirm the approach for the reset programme and agree the first set of actions. I look forward to hearing about their progress,' Mr Seymour says. 'I'm pleased to see the Board take the opportunity to continue to prioritise expanding opportunities and access for patients and their families by expanding access to more medicines for more groups. 'The working group reflects our commitment to a more adaptable and patient-centred approach. It follows my letters of expectations, the consumer engagement workshop, last year's Medicines Summit, and the acceptance of Patient Voice Aotearoa's White Paper as actions to achieve this. 'The Government is doing its part. Last year we allocated Pharmac its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, and a $604 million uplift to give Pharmac the financial support it needs to carry out its functions - negotiating the best deals for medicine for New Zealanders.' The consumer working group members are: Dr Malcolm Mulholland MNZM – Patient Voice Aotearoa Libby Burgess MNZM – Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition Tim Edmonds – Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ Chris Higgins – Rare Disorders NZ Francesca Holloway – Arthritis NZ Trent Lash – Heartbeats Charitable Trust Gerard Rushton – The Meningitis Foundation Rachel Smalley MNZM – The Medicine Gap Tracy Tierney – Epilepsy NZ Deon York – Haemophilia NZ
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
New working group looks to demystify Pharmac fund
New Zealand has over 100 medicines on the Options for Investment (OFI) List, which is priority medicines that are waiting to be publicly funded. Photo: 123rf Drug buying agency Pharmac is bringing patients and consumers to the table. It has announced a new Consumer and Patient Working Group after years of reviews calling for major change . The group, made up of the consumer and patient community, will help steer a 12-month reset, aimed at making Pharmac more open and responsive. It will decide what Pharmac focuses on for the reset programme, taking a hands-on role in the delivery of the work to ensure it reflects consumers' needs, values, and perspectives. Patient advocate, Dr Malcolm Mulholland, has been appointed Chair of the working group. He told Morning Report he hopes the group will provide clarity on how Pharmac chooses what drugs it funds. "People just do not know how Pharmac arrives at the decisions they do and why it takes so long. I think that's probably the major bugbear that patients experience, and that's one area that we are very keen to get involve with and try and improve it." Medicine NZ found on average, applications for funding have been with Pharmac for six years. New Zealand has over 100 medicines on the Options for Investment (OFI) List, which is priority medicines that are waiting to be publicly funded. The cost of clearing this list is estimated to be $1 billion. According to Medicine NZ, 1.4 million people would benefit from the medicines. Dr Mulholland, who has been apart of petitions to fund medicines taken to Parliament, criticised the need for patients to publicly put pressure on politicians to fund drugs. "It is not a healthy process, and it's not how overseas jurisdictions like Pharmac operate, it's actually very unusual," he said. "That shows us that the Pharmac process is sick, so to speak, and we need to improve it and get it well." Dr Mulholland said we need to improve the way Pharmac approves a medicine's funding in a much shorter time. He added government needs to fund Pharmac properly. Dr Malcolm Mulholland. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham On Monday, Associate Health Minister David Seymour told Pharmac to modernise or it would fall behind . In a letter of expectations, Seymour said to the agency to "innovate and optimise" to increase access to medicines and continue the "positive culture shift" that's been underway, such as exploring ways to "utilise AI". His expectations also included to be more proactive in engaging with stakeholders and continue to involve patients early in the process. The Consumer and Patient Working Group members are:
Scoop
2 days ago
- Health
- Scoop
Consumer And Patient Working Group To Help Pharmac Reset
Patient advocate, Dr Malcolm Mulholland, has been appointed Chair of the new Consumer and Patient Working Group that will help Pharmac reset how it works with consumers. Pharmac has committed to a 12-month reset programme to become a more outward-focussed and transparent organisation. This is in response to multiple external reviews over the last few years which sought transformational change in Pharmac. The new working group, made up of the consumer and patient community, will decide what Pharmac focuses on for the reset programme, taking a hands-on role in the delivery of the work to ensure it reflects consumers' needs, values, and perspectives. Acting Pharmac Chief Executive, Brendan Boyle, said Dr Mulholland was selected by the patient advocacy community to lead the group, and brings a lot of mana to the role. 'We are grateful that Malcolm, and the other nine members of the working group, have offered to partner with us to help us get the Pharmac reset work right.' Dr Mulholland said, 'We've waited a long time for this opportunity. The work that Pharmac does is vitally important for the health of patients and their families, and this is why getting Pharmac to work as well as it can, will be the focus of the working group.' The working group had their first meeting on Monday 21 July at the Pharmac offices in Wellington. They finalised the group's terms of reference, confirmed the approach for the reset programme, and agreed the first set of actions to focus on. The Consumer and Patient Working Group members are: Dr Malcolm Mulholland MNZM – Patient Voice Aotearoa Libby Burgess MNZM – Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition Tim Edmonds – Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ Chris Higgins – Rare Disorders NZ Francesca Holloway – Arthritis NZ Trent Lash – Heartbeats Charitable Trust Gerard Rushton – The Meningitis Foundation Rachel Smalley MNZM – The Medicine Gap Tracy Tierney – Epilepsy NZ
Scoop
2 days ago
- Health
- Scoop
Innovation And Optimisation To Improve Medicines Access
Associate Minister of Health Associate Health Minister David Seymour has today announced more clear expectations for Pharmac to innovate and optimise to further build on expectations set last year; to deliver the medicines and medical technology that Kiwis need. 'Increasing medicines access is one of my greatest priorities. For many New Zealanders, funding for pharmaceuticals is life or death, or the difference between a life of pain and suffering or living freely,' Mr Seymour says. Since my last letter of expectations Pharmac has: Improved overall consultation Added additional consultation to the annual tender process Changed funding criteria based on public feedback, such as the decision to fund two types of oestradiol patches Appointed Natalie McMurtry as the incoming Chief Executive to cement positive change, and continue to move towards a more transparent, inclusive, and people-focused organisation Conducted, and published a report on, the Consumer Engagement Workshop to help reset the Patient-Pharmac relationship Appointed a Consumer Working Group to help reset the Patient-Pharmac relationship Funded access to 66 additional medicines using the Government's $604 million budget boost over four years which will benefit over 200,000 New Zealanders 'This is a good start. My letter of expectations for this year makes it very clear that there is still more work to be done. I expect this positive culture shift to continue,' Mr Seymour says. 'Pharmac must modernise, or it will fall behind. It needs to adopt faster, smarter processes and explore the use of AI to lift performance.' My expectations for this year are that Pharmac should: Explore how it can optimise medicines assessment and procurement processes to make them more efficient Explore ways to utilise AI to make their processes more efficient Consider the fiscal impacts to the government of funding medicines and medical devices, including costs of societal impacts of funding or not funding a medicine or medical device Be more proactive in engaging with stakeholders Look for new and additional funding opportunities for medicines and medical devices Publish measurable performance metrics and timely decisions to increase transparency Continue to involve patients early in the process and engage with them meaningfully 'We're committed to ensuring that the regulatory system for pharmaceuticals is not unreasonably holding back access. It will lead to more Kiwis being able to access the medicines they need to live a fulfilling life,' Mr Seymour says. 'I am looking forward to continuing to work with Pharmac as we continue to ensure Kiwis get timely access to medicines and medical devices.'
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Associate Health Minister David Seymour warns Pharmac to modernise or risk falling behind
Photo: RNZ The Associate Health Minister says Pharmac must modernise, "or it will fall behind." David Seymour has told the agency to "innovate and optimise" to increase access to medicines and continue the "positive culture shift" that's been underway, such as exploring ways to "utilise AI". Seymour released his latest letter of expectations today, with the hope of building on his letter from last year where he told the agency it was inappropriate to keep considering the Treaty of Waitangi's place in the health sector. Since that letter of expectation, Seymour said the drug-buying agency has improved overall consultation and changed funding criteria based on public feedback. The agency had also appointed a new chief executive to "cement positive change, and continue to move towards a more transparent, inclusive, and people-focused organisation." "This is a good start. My letter of expectations for this year makes it very clear that there is still more work to be done. I expect this positive culture shift to continue," Seymour said. Now, Seymour wanted Pharmac to modernise and "adopt faster, smarter processes and explore the use of AI to lift performance." His expectations included: Seymour told the agency he wanted it to report back to him by December this year on work done to consider the broader fiscal impacts to government and regarding societal and non-health outcomes of funding medicines and medical devices. He also expected Pharmac to "renew its organisational culture and sharpen its strategic focus, ensuring it plays a more visible and constructive role across the wider health system." As part of the "continuous improvement of organisational culture", Seymour said Pharmac needed to carry on giving effect to the Cabinet Circular specifying "Needs-based Service Provision" to meet the government's expectations for how the "targeting, commissioning and design of public services should be based on the needs of all New Zealanders." Seymour said he's committed to ensuring the regulatory system for pharmaceuticals was not "unreasonably holding back access". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
