A patient advocate says New Zealanders’ ability to access life-extending medications is in crisis and the model needs more Government funding.
Patient Voice Aotearoa chairman Malcolm Mulholland started a nationwide tour, which will run for the next month, in Palmerston North on Monday night to raise awareness about what he called the unfunded medicine crisis.
The campaign is called My Life Matters and covers a number of patient advocate groups representing more than 1 million patients with cancers and other conditions.
Mulholland has been a campaigner for better access to medications for cancer patients and an increase in Government funding for drug buying agency Pharmac. He and his late wife Wiki, who died in 2021, lobbied the Government for pay for more unfunded drugs.
Mulholland said it took too long to access medications in New Zealand and Pharmac’s funding wasn’t enough.
“The number of patients missing out [on medications] is the same size as Hamilton, 170,000 New Zealanders.
Patient Voice Aotearoa had presented multiple petitions asking for drugs to be funded and Mulholland said now 400,000 people could access the medicine they needed.
He said Pharmac valued a life at much less than other Government agencies.
Pharmac wasn’t fit for purpose because it didn’t have a big enough budget, which meant New Zealand lagged behind other OECD countries in access to medication, he said.
Credit: stuff.co.nz
