Brown: Pharmac funding decision increases medicines access

• By Simeon Brown, Member of Parliament for Pakuranga

There’s been some good news from Pharmac this month.

The agency has announced its decision to fund medicines for a further five health conditions, including cancers, from March 1.

This follows our Government’s $604 million funding uplift to increase access to cancer medicines.

Delivering access to timely, quality cancer care in New Zealand has been a focus of this Government, which is why it’s one of our five key health targets, and why we’re making a record investment in health.

• Widening access to atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Vegzelma) for liver cancer that can’t be removed by surgery.
• Widening access to bevacizumab (Vegzelma) for advanced ovarian cancer.
• Funding a new brand of bevacizumab (Vegzelma).
• Funding lanreotide for neuroendocrine cancers, bowel blockages caused by cancer, and for a growth disorder called acromegaly.

As Minister of Health, I’m focused on ensuring all New Zealanders have access to timely, quality healthcare.

That means ensuring better access to more cancer medicines, better cancer management driven by our faster cancer treatment target, and earlier detection of cancers through screening programmes.

It’s encouraging to see improvement in our efforts to provide faster cancer treatment, with more patients receiving their first treatment within 31 days in the first financial quarter than in the previous quarter and more cancer treatments available.

We want to build a world-class health system, and that requires world-class medicines.

Our Government has also announced funding of more than $14m to replace the main water supply and ring mains in the main building of Auckland City Hospital.

The over 20-year-old pipes are in poor condition, and the current design means burst pipes cannot be turned off without also switching off the hot water supply to the whole building.

This system has already failed twice in the past six months, most recently on January 26, when the entire hot water supply had to be shut off to repair an isolated leak.

Fixing this problem is a priority for me as access to hot water in our hospitals is a basic necessity for patients and staff, and the day-to-day running of clinical services.

That’s why I’ve approved funding to replace the main supply line and ring mains, the first of three stages to replace the existing piping with copper pipes.

The first phase of work is expected to take place over 13 months with a carefully planned approach that will minimise disruptions to clinical care.

The Government’s record $16.68 billion in funding for health will help ensure Kiwis have access to timely, quality healthcare in hospitals that have fit-for-purpose infrastructure.