A new Pharmac working group met for the first time yesterday as part of a reset of the Crown entity.
Pharmac hosted a Consumer Engagement Workshop in March, where patients and advocates voiced their hopes at resetting the patient – Pharmac relationship.
The findings report from the workshop recommended that the Board invite workshop participants, in association with the wider consumer-patient representative community, to select a working group.
Associate Health Minister, David Seymour said 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,” said Mr Seymour.
The consumer working group members are:
- Dr Malcolm Mulholland MNZM (pictured, right) – Patient Voice Aotearoa
- Libby Burgess MNZM (pictured, left) – 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.
“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,” said group chair, Dr Mulholland.
“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,” said Minister Seymour.
“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,” he said.
