Implementing Medicines New Zealand 2015 to 2020 - the Medicines Strategy Action Plan

Good evening and welcome to the launch of Implementing Medicines New Zealand, the new medicines action plan.

I am very pleased to launch this Plan today and to see so many familiar faces. I would like to thank the Pharmaceutical Society for hosting us this evening.

Special thanks to Richard Townley, Veronica Challies, and Jocelyn Rodrigues for their efforts in organising the proceedings.

I would also like to extend my thanks to those Ministry of Health officials who have helped get us to this point – this is the culmination of a fairly lengthy process and your dedication to getting us to this point is acknowledged and appreciated. Medicines play a significant role in helping New Zealanders get well, stay well and live well.

We have already made positive changes in this area, but there remain substantial challenges ahead of us. We need to buy, use and manage medicines wisely. We need to meet the needs of our ageing population and meet the needs of the increasing numbers of people with multiple chronic conditions.

And we need to meet these needs in a way that is more efficient, more coordinated and achieves the most from our limited health dollars. That will require everyone in the health sector to work differently. Integrated healthcare teams will have to work to coordinate their efforts to provide consumer-centred services.

Pharmacists will need to be empowered and challenged to work to the top of their vocational scope. This work has to be done beyond government agencies, by health professionals, service providers, responsible authorities, and patient groups. The reality is, as is the case with any good team or system, that it is only through working collaboratively that we will achieve the best health outcomes for New Zealanders.

The Medicines Strategy, Medicines New Zealand, provides the overarching framework to govern the regulation, procurement, management and use of medicines in New Zealand. It describes the outcomes we want to achieve. We want New Zealanders to have access to safe, high-quality, effective medicines, and we want those medicines to be used in the best possible way.

The three core outcomes set out in the Strategy are:

· access to the medicines New Zealanders need, regardless of their individual ability to pay and within government funding provided

· quality medicines that are safe and effective, and

· optimal use of medicines, resulting in optimal health outcomes.

These outcomes were relevant in 2007 when we drafted the Strategy and first action plan and they remain relevant now. We have achieved a great deal since the release of that first action plan in 2007 and its successor in 2009.

Those plans focused on action by the Government – both legislative and policy changes – and we have made solid progress. Actions under those plans have provided the foundation of a functioning and capable medicines system.

The 25 actions under the 2009 action plan have been completed.

For example, we have established the New Zealand Formulary, enhanced pharmacovigilance activity and there have been changes to who can prescribe medicines. Despite these efforts we still have challenges ahead of us. We are not yet achieving the Medicine Strategy outcomes every day and for all New Zealanders. We need to take a broad, forward-looking view of the role of medicines in the health system.

We need to seize opportunities to ensure that everything we do with medicines is better coordinated, is mutually reinforcing, and leads to meaningful improvements in health outcomes. Above all, everything we do needs to be focused on consumers - we need consumer centred services.

In order to drive further meaningful change for patients it is important that health professionals, particularly pharmacists, are engaged in this work.

With that in mind, I enlisted your help and help from other parts of the health sector to develop a refreshed plan.

The workshop that the Pharmaceutical Society and I hosted on 31 October 2014 was a great success. It identified a clear pathway for achieving the most from New Zealand's use of medicines. It was well attended by the pharmacy profession and others including consumers, DHBs, PHOs, PHARMAC, ACC, general practitioners, and nurses.

That workshop enabled us to develop Implementing Medicines New Zealand. This Plan is about making the changes required to deliver on the Strategy.

The Plan supports the Strategy by helping enable the health system to move to a more integrated model of care.

It does this through its focus on harnessing collective efforts and re-orienting the health sector towards consumer-centred activity. The Plan’s seven impact areas provide an agreed framework for activity across the health sector and require activity in a range of settings. Each impact area has clear objectives so that we are all clear about what needs to be achieved. However, the Plan is flexible.

It allows us to keep focus on the impact areas, while allowing activity to evolve over time. Each impact area also describes some of the actions required to achieve those objectives.

There are two types of actions:

Firstly, work that is already underway or activities that we know are already common and regarded as good practice across the health sector.

The Plan brings this work together in a coordinated way and ensures we are all clear about the objectives it contributes towards.

And then, with your help, we have also identified a second type of action. These are new and aspirational actions that may evolve over the next five years.

They are often based on developing innovative practice that already exists in pockets.

The Plan challenges organisations across the health sector to consider how they can build these actions, or others like them, into future work programmes.

Health professionals are the face of the medicines system and are crucial to implementing the Plan and achieving the outcomes of the Strategy.

The actions in the Plan can only be achieved by harnessing the collective efforts of all health professionals.

In particular, we have identified great opportunities for enhancing the role of pharmacists – something I have long been an advocate of. And in this regard I was very pleased to see expanded roles for pharmacists included as a hot topic for the Pharmaceutical Society’s regional symposia.

Pharmacists are in a position that makes them easily accessible to people seeking health care or advice. They can work collaboratively with other health professionals to ensure the right people receive the right services at the right time. Changing the interaction a person has with a pharmacist could therefore have a large impact on the health outcomes of New Zealanders.

I therefore challenge you today, to build on the innovative practice already underway across the sector. To consider how you can help to deliver on the actions in this Plan, and to work with your colleagues across the health sector to share your vision.

The Government will not be sitting on its hands.

While these efforts continue across the sector there are other critical projects that will help ensure that health professionals have the leadership and guidance that they need to support their work. One of the most important upcoming changes is the new regulatory regime for therapeutic products.

This new regime will replace the existing Medicines Act.

It will ensure that the regulation of therapeutic products is fit for purpose not just in 2015, but for the next 30 years. It will need to be robust but also flexible enough to enable the innovation that we know will happen, and needs to happen, over time. As well as modernising the regulatory arrangements for medicines, the new regime will also encompass all therapeutic products.

For the first time medical devices and cell and tissue therapies will be included, which currently are not adequately regulated in New Zealand. A robust regulatory regime is a prerequisite to high-quality health care services that are safe and effective.

In order to achieve a robust regulatory regime we will need input from you, our practitioners, regulators and experts. I encourage you to look to the outcomes we want to achieve, and to tell us what a true future-focused regulatory system would look like.

How can we achieve the optimal balance between the need for safe and trusted systems, and the need to ensure flexible, efficient and affordable access to the most appropriate therapeutic products?

Also helping us to look towards the future is the work currently being led by the Pharmacy Steering Group. They are working closely with the Ministry of Health to develop a roadmap for pharmacy. The roadmap will articulate two broad areas.

First, how to deliver pharmacy services, as part of a highly functioning, patient-centred, fully integrated health system. And second, how the sector can best deliver a broad range of quality, accessible and cost-effective healthcare services.

We’ve made solid progress, but the Government can’t do this by itself. New Zealand has a large number of expert and dedicated health professionals who are in the best position to deliver change. If we want to make progress, we need you to drive change.

Implementing Medicines New Zealand will support innovation and help the sector move towards better, integrated, consumer-centred care.

I thank you for your contribution to this Plan, your support for the impact areas, and your ongoing dedication to improving health outcomes for all New Zealanders.

ENDS

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