Lack Of Funding Is Compromising Health

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

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