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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