Doubling the funding for drug-buying agency Pharmac will save lives and allow more people to live well, a group lobbying the Government say.
Malcolm Mulholland, of Patient Voice Aotearoa, led a group taking a petition from Palmerston North to Parliament on Wednesday, asking the Government to double Pharmacs funding and to reform the organisation.
The petition, which had been signed by 100,000 people, was accepted by politicians in Wellington. The trip coincided with a lie down for life event at 11 locations across the country, where people laid on the ground to send a message to the Government that people would die without adequate access to modern medicines.
Mulholland said the funding for Pharmac was the difference between life and death and one of the requests was more transparency around decisions on which drugs to fund.
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Because they’re so severely under funded, Pharmac is essentially picking who lives and who dies. Actually for some of these drugs there’s no huge difference in terms of cost.
So clearly that’s the decision that they’re making behind closed doors.
He said it was a political decision how much the agency was funded.
Pharmac can’t fund itself and the only person who can do that is the minister of health Andrew Little, so with one eye on the Budget next week, here’s hoping they actually listen to what we have to say and double Pharmac’s budget.
That will result in more people living and living well.
Kase Williams, who has cystic fibrosis, boards the bus heading to Parliament to present the petition.
Mulholland had been campaigning for the rights of New Zealand patients for the past three years since his wife Wiki was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.
He was optimistic about creating change.
There are so many people being affected by the way that Pharmac operates and their lack of funding. I think the Government has to act.
They can’t just simply ignore it and say it’s one or two people out in the provinces, this actually affects all New Zealanders.
If you look at the petition, 100,000 people have signed it. That’s one in every 15 New Zealanders and that tells me there’s something seriously wrong with Pharmac.
Those at the lie down for life event forming a heart.
Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt told Stuff in a statement: While we recognise the challenges faced by patients and their whnau, and their understandable desire to try new treatments, our job is to look at all the evidence and make a decision that is in the interests of all Kiwis.
Well always have more medicines that wed want to fund, and this means we sometimes need to make some difficult choices.
Fitt said Pharmac worked hard to negotiate some of the best prices for medicines in the world and it didnt set the cost of medicines.
It is the drug companies that benefit from the high prices of new medicines.
We aim to give people access to new and effective medicines at a price that is fair and affordable, which is what New Zealanders expect us to do.
Little was yet to respond to a request for comment.
Chrissy Paul speaks at the lie down for life event in Te Marae o Hine-The Square on Wednesday.
A group gathered in Te Marae o Hine-The Square at 12.30pm for the lie down for life event, where there were banners, speeches and people formed into a heart shape.
One of those who spoke was teenager Kyann Williams, whose brother Kase, 13, has cystic fibrosis. Kase had gone on the bus to Wellington to deliver the petition.
She hoped their actions would get the Governments attention and it would provide more funding for medication for her brother and other people who drugs weren’t funded for.
I dont think anyone deserves to die because they didnt get the drug. I think everyone deserves to stay with their family, [and have] a happy ending.
