7 April 2005
Pharmac’s Lack Of Funding Is Compromising New Zealanders Health
The Neurological Alliance has come out in support of Peter Dunne’s questions in Parliament about Pharmac’s failure to
provide New Zealanders with modern drugs for a host of illnesses.
The Neurological Alliance is a group of not for profit health sector groups concerned that the health treatment for many
people throughout New Zealand is becoming affected by the increasing list of unavailable drugs and heavy restrictions on
many of drugs that are available.
“We believe that the health of New Zealanders is being compromised by the lack of government health funding for
pharmaceutical products and would like to see health funding increase to improve access to medicines for all New
Zealanders” says Florence Leota, Chairperson for the Neurological Alliance.
“Thousands of people are not receiving the medicines their doctors would prefer to prescribe which might result in
medical conditions worsening in the long term costing the health system as a whole. Therefore if access to drugs was
widened taxpayers money spent in other parts of the health system may be saved “On paper Pharmac is one of the Ministry
of Health’s success stories – consistently keeping within their budget and saving taxpayers money. The reality is that
the funding provided to Pharmac by the Ministry of Health is not adequate to ensure the best health outcomes for all New
Zealanders” concluded the Chairperson for the Neurological Alliance.
ENDS