Consumer And Patient Working Group To Help Pharmac Reset

Patient advocate, Dr Malcolm Mulholland, has been appointed Chair of the new Consumer and Patient Working Group that will help Pharmac reset how it works with consumers.

Pharmac has committed to a 12-month reset programme to become a more outward-focussed and transparent organisation. This is in response to multiple external reviews over the last few years which sought transformational change in Pharmac.

The new working group, made up of the consumer and patient community, will decide what Pharmac focuses on for the reset programme, taking a hands-on role in the delivery of the work to ensure it reflects consumers’ needs, values, and perspectives.

Acting Pharmac Chief Executive, Brendan Boyle, said Dr Mulholland was selected by the patient advocacy community to lead the group, and brings a lot of mana to the role.

“We are grateful that Malcolm, and the other nine members of the working group, have offered to partner with us to help us get the Pharmac reset work right.”

Dr Mulholland said, “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.”

The working group had their first meeting on Monday 21 July at the Pharmac offices in Wellington. They finalised the group’s terms of reference, confirmed the approach for the reset programme, and agreed the first set of actions to focus on.

The Consumer and Patient Working Group members are:

1. Dr Malcolm Mulholland MNZM – Patient Voice Aotearoa
2. Libby Burgess MNZM – Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition
3. Tim Edmonds – Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ
4. Chris Higgins – Rare Disorders NZ
5. Francesca Holloway – Arthritis NZ
6. Trent Lash – Heartbeats Charitable Trust
7. Gerard Rushton – The Meningitis Foundation
8. Rachel Smalley MNZM – The Medicine Gap
9. Tracy Tierney – Epilepsy NZ
10. Deon York – Haemophilia NZ

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