New Zealand, It’s Time To Put Fairness In Focus

Medicines New Zealand is today relaunching their digital public awareness platform Fairness in Focus. This platform is designed to create better public understanding of modern medicines' importance and role in New Zealand. This platform is focussed on allowing all New Zealanders to be part of the conversation on this topic.

Fairness in Focus highlights collaborative solutions around how New Zealand can enhance its processes and improve access to modern medicines through the public health system. Medicines New Zealand is pleased that one such solution, a defined medicines appropriation has been adopted, and for the first time included in Budget 2022 by the current Government. This has made it clear that the level of medicines investment is only 5% of the total health budget. This investment level will continue to see New Zealand at the bottom of the OECD rankings for modern medicines access, compared to our peer nations such as Australia and the UK where the investment level is over 10%.

“Clearly the levels of investment in medicines made by a country for its population has many positive knock-on effects. It is well established that better public access to modern medicines reduces pressures upstream in health systems by lowering hospitalisation rates and reducing mortality, as well as allowing patients to become active participants in their whānau and communities again,” says Dr Graeme Jarvis, CEO of Medicines New Zealand.

However, over the past few years in New Zealand, there has been increasing media awareness and coverage of patients, their whānau and friends fundraising for medicines, patients moving overseas to access medicines and petitions being presented at Parliament requesting medicines to be publicly funded. This coverage has begun to highlight how many New Zealanders have to sacrifice a great deal to get the medicines they need, which are publicly funded and highly available to patients in peer nations such as the UK, Australia and the EU.

Take a look at the Fairness in Focus platform here.

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