The Daily Blog Open Mic – Sunday – 29th November 2020

1. Fuk me with a feather duster!!!!!!!!! How did I not know that!. Following the ‘listenings’ of or from my idol and icon Kim Hill; (more on the use of the semicolon later), there at the midday newsie bulletin was a reference to H1’s “Foundation”. I may have ‘mis’heard, but I’m fairly sure it had nothing to do with the status of her undercarriage.
   I want to know more! Please people! Any details gratefully received, bearing in mind I’m Twitterless, Facefucked, all out of LinkedIn and not really that keen on engaging in anyway that gives preference to the electronically and virtually contrived over the ekshull real.

2. “A public notice in today’s Herald gives notice that a citizen-initiated referendum has been proposed asking: “Should New Zealand decriminalise the possession of cannabis for personal use?”

   “The proposal, lodged by Wellington Central Young Greens activist Mathew Bouma, is open for comments on the proposed wording until February 1…’
   https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/another-cannabis-referendum-vote-proposed-on-decriminalisation/Q6YZC5DRLAUMRE2PVMAPERH5BQ/

3. This was posted on the Labour parties page yesterday 27th Nov 2020.

   Along with other comments by other Patient Voice Aotearoa forum members.

   A comment from the Under Funding of Medicines by Pharmac Group page.

   Pharmac Waiting List as of 30th April 2020.

   https://www.dropbox.com/s/do2ia1f7510fzn1/Medicines_Waiting_List_Report_to_30_April_2020_Final__June_2020_.pdf?dl=0

   $680 million on top of the $200 million you have promised You Jacinda Grant And David Clark promised would fund every single one of the 105 medications on the list above ( June 30th 2020 figures) would be funded and over a million plus kiwis would have their lives made much more bearable than the current daily misery they endure.

   Not only that it would show the worlds medicine companies we are not a third world healthcare country.

   An explanation of why people are so active in DEMANDING PHARMAC CHANGE and why we are not prepared to sit down shut up and wait.

   From one of the Patient Voice Aotearoa trustees Penny TUCKER.

   Dear team PVA
   In reading the post put up last night about MS patients being made to do the walk of shame, I wanted to set the record straight about Pharmac in a separate post (simply for clarity).
   We are desperately trying to get the Government to reform Pharmac and, when we’re asking for your help, it’s really important to separate fact from misunderstandings.
   If you sign the petition, and we need people to sign the petition, you need to know why some people are literally dedicating their lives to trying to make things better for kiwis.

   First off, Pharmac is a Government agency and falls directly under the Minister of Health. When the Government talks of it being “independent” they are talking about its decision making and not its budget (Crown controlled), its performance (Crown assessed) or its mandate (Crown dictated).
   So the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health could change Pharmac in a second if they had the will to do so.
   The only reason there’s a sustained effort to paint Pharmac as its own boss is to shirk responsibility for fixing it.

   What’s wrong? NZ spends around 5% of its health spend on drugs when the OECD average is closer to 20%.
   So we’re radically and tragically underinvesting in life-saving and life-improving treatments.
   We’re at the bottom on the OECD and still falling – our health outcomes reflect this.
   THERE IS NOT ENOUGH MONEY BEING INVESTED IN SAVING LIVES.

   Why?

   Well, unlike nearly every other developed country we have no medicines strategy – there’s no direction at all.
   Pharmac just weaves through a maze of arbitrary decision making.
   WE NEED TO PRESS THE GOVERNMENT TO DEVELOP A MEDICINES STRATEGY IN CONSULTATION WITH MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND PATIENTS.
   Then, we have no actual ring-fenced medicines budget – different DHBs spend different amounts of money.
   WE NEED A CLEAR AUDITABLE MEDICINES BUDGET.
   Pharmac is also notoriously opaque in terms of its decision making.
   It rarely rejects applications for funding – merely sits on them for years.
   It ignores international best-practice with a degree of incredulous clinical ineptitude which is breath-taking.
   It quotes prices for medicines which don’t even slightly relate to what they actually cost (to make them sound inconceivably expensive) and there’s no real avenue to appeal decisions.
   Pharmac says it’s open but it is not. KIWIS NEED PROPER ACCESS TO PHARMAC’S INNER WORKINGS.
   That’s what we’re asking for.

   Here’s why:
   Kiwis miss out on 287 modern medicines for conditions including arthritis, cancer, asthma, CVD, diabetes and rare disorders.
   These medicines are publicly funded in 19 other similar OECD countries to NZ.
   There are 105 recommended medicines from PHARMAC’s own technical experts, that are still not publicly funded by PHARMAC/DHBs.
   Over 235,000 New Zealanders are missing out on those 105 medicines while patients in countries like Greece, Estonia, Peru, Mexico, Kazakstan, Moldova and Lebanon have public access to them.
   The average time for Pharmac to approve a drug is now over 4 years (4.2 years) and some of the recommended medicines are waiting as long as a 16 years to be funded.

   So, we’re parked with a third world, closed, bizarrely punitive citadel of a government agency which has no problem with our give-a-little system of access to health.
   Understandably, the kiwis most disadvantaged by this are those without much independent means, with rare conditions and without access to influence.
   We’re just letting them die.
   Looking on the bright side, much of this is fixable.
   But it will take public pressure to keep persuading the government that just because some people are greatly compromised by the system, they won’t just sidle away and die quietly anymore.
   We hope that PVA helps amplify their voice.

   Please sign the petition. http://www.sign4life.nz

   Please also be gentle when you read the stories of people that are posted on this site.
   They are real human beings who deserve our respect.

   Meanwhile while Pharmac is blatantly underfunded and getting minimal increases that do next to nothing to help the problem Pharmaceutical companies are completely by passing New Zealand with the latest updated medicines because they know Pharmac wont give them 5 mins of their day and are not prepared to wait up to 4 plus years for Pharmac to even look at approving let alone wait 16 years (Epipens for adrenaline shock for those allergic to bee stings) .

   Take the Diabetes Continuous Arm Monitor sensors 1 manufacturer is on its 6 generation of their arm monitor and Pharmac has not even funded the 1st Generation yet.
   The application for that was put in 4 years ago.
   6 type 2 medications are waiting for funding and most of those are over 10 years old and still waiting.

   In 2019 a survey of Green Cross Group Pharmacies ( Unichem and Life pharmacies) was undertaken .
   To access how many items customers paid more than $5 per item for.
   Between September 2017 and August 2019 there were 188,462 items per month dispensed where someone paid more than $5 per item in one of the 330 Green cross pharmacies.
   This works out at 571 items per Pharmacy per month.

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