Pharmac CEO Sarah Fitt resigns after months of pressure
Pharmac’s chief executive has resigned following months of pressure.
The Pharmac board issued a statement on Friday saying Sarah Fitt would resign effective May 30, following 7 years in the role.
Asked if the board had lost confidence in Fitt, Pharmac chairperson Paula Bennett said “no, I wouldn’t say that”.
“I think that we had looked at the direction that we want to go in, and we’ve certainly been talking to her about what those changes might mean. But certainly it’s her decision to resign, and we wish her all the best for the future.”
I’m glad Fitt’s gone.
Her war with Rachel Smalley was bullshit, her commitment to patients was woeful and Patient Voice Aotearoa advocate Malcolm Mulholland was always scathing of her.
My fear now that Paula Bennett is running it is that we will see the privatisation agenda that is corroding all public services will start with whoever they replace her with.
If it’s some industry chump or som NZ Initiative pimp, you will know Pharmac is under attack.
Will Paula Bennett privatize Pharmac because Simeon Brown has just started!
The Greens make the point about Simeon’s new attack on public health…
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services.
“Our health system is falling victim to a slow death by a thousand cuts,” says Green Party Health spokesperson Hūhana Lyndon.
“All New Zealanders deserve a strong, robust public health system that is funded to spec, and able to provide high-quality, timely health services to all who need it.
“This Government has shown nothing but disdain for public health workers, dismissing their concerns, undermining unions, and outright stating that their pay equity is ‘not his job’.
“This is not about fixing a broken system. It’s about starving it of resources until privatisation looks like the only answer.
“The refusal of this Government to acknowledge public health as an imperative service, and to fund it in kind, has created an artificial crisis, and while Lester Levy has fallen victim to it today, ultimately, the New Zealand public will pay the price.
“This so-called ‘deficit’ was never a deficit; it was a direct result of underfunding. And now, instead of addressing the root cause, the Minister is turning to private care to plug the holes in a leaking system.
“Bringing in more private providers might sound like a quick fix, but it’s little more than an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. A cliff Simeon Brown is pushing our healthcare system over. Ultimately, funding for the private sector is funding that our public services desperately need. It will cost more, create more strain on public providers, and deepen the already existing inequities within our healthcare system.
“This is a clear step in the direction of ACT’s disgraceful vision of a fully privatised healthcare system, which we cannot, and will not, stand for.
“The Green Party campaigned on delivering a fully-funded, well resourced public health system with decent wages and conditions. All New Zealanders should be able to access timely and accessible diagnosis and treatment.
“Our plan will put New Zealanders’ health and wellbeing at the centre of decision-making and policy, where it should have been all along,” says Hūhana Lyndon.
…and this from the PSA…
No Place For Privatisation In Health – Alarm Bells Should Be Ringing
The unveiling of the Health Minister’s new priorities is a clear signal that the Government wants to rely on the private sector to deliver health services rather than properly funding a public health system.
“The Government’s privatisation agenda has been well and truly exposed in Minister Brown’s priorities,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“These amount to a slippery slope to an American style health system and the continued running down of our public health system. Alarm bells should be ringing.”
…the reason Reti was sacked was because as a Dr there were public health cuts he couldn’t perform, where as Simeon Brown is a sadistic little yes man who will do as he’s told.
This Government purposely under funded Public health so that they could manufacture a crisis and slash costs so as to fund their tax cuts and landlord loop holes!
In the Budget, National allocated just 2.9% increase to health services but inflation was 3.3% and population growth 2.6% while an ageing population adds more to costs.
National gave 2.9% for health but we needed 8% to stand still, that under funding has manufactured a crisis National are attempting to use privatisation to solve.
TDB has been warning about this tactic since before the election!
LOOK.
AT.
THE.
PICTURE!
We are a nation of easily manipulated and led muppets.
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Reti was a nice guy but was not up to running one of the toughest ministry and fronting its changes to the journalists. I have hear Brown on the radio everyday but Reti never fronted .
I have had far to much to do with the health system over the past years and no matter who is in charge politically the workers are doing a great job.
Trevor The workers, the scarce real health workers, may be doing a great job, but the same cannot be said about the bureaucrats and algorithms who actually reference patients now as customers and clients.
Did you know that on a quiet Monday in the capital city you can see fifty patients still waiting to be seen at 10pm, and the prioritised patients, the children or adults who are bleeding or in pain or simply too silent, waiting a couple of hours before a medic is free to be able to attend to them ?
Wasn’t it ACT’s Seymour who made Bennett head of Pharmac, without having any obvious qualifications apart from a head of hair resembling a yard broom, and IMO, a track record in housing enough to send shivers up the spine of any person desperate to find a place to call home?
Private Hospitals by next year and American only drugs from january .
Welcome folks, to the greatest show on earth. I’m known far and wide, as Simeon the Supremo, aka Twyford two-point-oh, the best magician in town.
Now for my first trick. Behold our wonderful cherished public health system, being held up by my trusted assistant Lester. Now with just one magical incantation: Hokuspokus abracadabra alakazam fiddledeedee kapoww…
Hey where’d it go. It wasn’t supposed to disappear like that, and Lester’s turned into a pile of poo. I’m sorry folks, but we’ve encountered a major problem. Of course there will be no refunds, for my show must go on.
Are the Nacts blind or stupid?
They want to turn NZ’s health system into a mini version of USA’s mess, that’s so popular in the states.
To grow our own Mangiones and Sackler dynasties.
Both
‘I have had far to(too) much to do with the health system over the past years and no matter who is in charge politically the workers are doing a great job.’
Trevor you never miss any opportunity to miss the point.
The point is privatising the health system will cost your future interactions with doctors a shitload of money.
Do you believe the famous tax cuts are going to give you the money for that?
If you are over seventy do, you believe an insurance company will give you affordable health insurance?
This is what it is about, not who you think is a nice guy, or condescending compliments to the people you want to keep underpaid and harassed.
Imagine New Zealand Division at El Alamein.
‘Well done chaps! Nobody could have done it better than you! ‘
‘However because you did so well the British General Staff have decided that you do not need any more reinforcements or new equipment. You can manage with what you have now.’
Stevie. Yes. It was wee Bill English who got thwarted wanting to introduce a $50 overnight charge for public hospital patients, and that $50 at a time when families are stressed, stretched, vulnerable and health challenged, was the double dipper at his most sociopathic I reckon.
Uncle Donald has a shit load of fentynal we can have for a cut price that we could use to cut the waiting list .Im sure Paula benefit could arrange the funding as the long term savings would be massive as the population euthanized them selves
Throw! lift! Paula Bennett! yuk! keep the barge pole at least 3m!
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