2 June 2022

Yesterday, the Minister of Health finally released the Pharmac Review Panel’s Final Report, and the Government’s response to that report.

The Review Panel was established in March 2021 to:

• Assess how well Pharmac performed against its objectives and whether its performance could be improved
• Whether its objectives maximise its potential to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders, and whether and how these objectives should be changed.

The Report highlights problems with Pharmac and the way in it operates. These include, amongst many others:

• Serious deficiencies in Pharmac’s decision-making processes and the quality of the decisions that come out of it, resulting in inequitable outcomes for Māori, Pasifika, disabled people, and other priority populations
• Those with rare disorders being disproportionately impacted by negative health outcomes and systemic failings
• A lack of transparency as to how decisions are made, and a lack of timeliness resulting in major uncertainty for patients.
• Failure to incorporate the lived experience of patients into decisions about medicines.

The Review Panel’s report makes 33 recommendations for change. The Government has accepted most of the recommendations, with others to be addressed as part of the changes to the health system to be implemented from 1 July 2022.

While CFNZ welcomes the report and thanks the Review Panel for its work, the report highlights what those in the CF and rare disorders community have known for a long time – there is a need for urgent change to the way medicines are assessed and funded in Aotearoa.

The report is just the first step – what we need now is urgent action to implement these recommendations.

Health Select Committee oral Submission - 8 June 2022

Next Wednesday, CFNZ will be presenting to the Health Select Committee to support Carmen Shanks as she presents her oral submission for public funding of Trikafta. We will be taking the opportunity to urge the Health Select Committee to do all it can to ensure that the recommendations are implemented as soon as possible, and that Pharmac is held fully accountable for delivery.

Read the Pharmac Review Report here

Read the Government's response here

Media coverage

Minister of Health, Andrew Little's response

Watch Breakfast, TVNZ1 with Bella Powell and Belinda Brown (Crohn's and Colitis) here

Rachel Smalley (Today FM) speaks to Lisa Foster (Rare Disorders CEO) and Malcolm Mullholland (Patient Voice Aotearoa) here

Checkpoint with Malcolm Mullholland

Lloyd Burr (Today FM) speaks to Andrew Little here