Te Pāti Māori Co-leader and Health spokesperson Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is supporting the calls of patients and advocates who have been left stunned by the Government’s lack of action on breast cancer screening and Pharmac funding in Budget 2022.

“Government are praising themselves for increased health funding, and yet still our response services for cancer and other life-threatening illnesses are still facing huge shortfalls in funding. There’s nothing more important than the hauora of our people, and yet cancer is taking us out at worse rates,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

“We support Breast Cancer Foundation NZ who have been campaigning for increased funding and an urgent plan to deal with the 50,000 backlog of women who need mammograms. In this Budget they have been ignored again.

“Their ambassador Stacey Morrison is telling the Government that “this 50,000 backlog is unacceptable”. The foundation has called on the Government to commit $15 million for BreastScreen Aotearoa to urgently clear the mammogram backlog and prevent women from being diagnosed late, which is a drop in the bucket of health spending and should have been an easy choice.

“From all the stories that have been shared with me, and my own personal experience, it’s clear that people are dealing with extremely long wait times, even women who meet all the risk factors for breast cancer.

“Government must listen and urgently invest funding into screening services to both keep pace with existing need and to lower the screening age, particularly for wāhine Māori who endure one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

Patients and advocates for lifesaving cancer drugs, such as Malcolm Mulholland, have spoken out about how this Budget fails to address the chronic underfunding of Pharmac. While there was some more funding, it is not keeping pace with need. In Malcolm’s words, “Government doesn’t understand the size of the problem - there is a $1.5bn hole in funding.”

“It would cost more than $400m per year to fund all of drugs on PHARMAC’s wish list. And As Malcom points out, even that would still leave us behind most OECD countries – catching up will likely cost up to $3bn per year,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

“Te Pāti Māori will continue to support the voices of patients who shouldn’t have to be campaigning for the medicines and services they need, but focusing on getting better. In a wealthy nation like Aotearoa, there is no excuse for patients not being able to access life-saving treatment.”

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