Hāpori Māori voice to inform new medicines implementation plans
Work is well underway to deliver more new medicines funded under the $604m budget increase provided to Pharmac in June 2024 (the Increasing Access to Medicines initiative), $38 million of which will cover the cost of delivering these new medicines in the first year.
Hei Āhuru Mōwai is working closely with Te Aho o Te Kahu and Health New Zealand to ensure our Hauora Māori partners and experts and whanau Māori have sufficient opportunities to bring their insights and the voice of hāpori Māori to these important discussions.
Te Aho o Te Kahu and Health New Zealand, with support from Ministry of Health and Pharmac, are responsible for the development, leadership, monitoring and reporting of the Programme. Implementation will be carried out by Health NZ as the organisation responsible for service delivery.
Regional stakeholder hui/webinars to date
Ngā mihi to everyone who has attended regional hui in person and online to date. Your contributions are essential to ensure fair and equitable access to these new medicines is considered for the rollout phase.
View the Regional Stakeholder Hui presentation here.
View the presentation about our Cancer Care Coordination Services here.
Te Manawa Taki regional stakeholder hui/webinar #1 (8 Nov 2024) - https://youtu.be/5u4OqqJbDLg
Te Manawa Taki regional stakeholder hui/webinar #2 (11 Dec 2024) - https://youtu.be/-NVJMQ72zyQ
Next steps for regional feedback
Regions will work with Hauora Māori service providers, patients, whānau, Primary and Community Care providers to develop regional service development plans which are effective and equitable.
The programme team will send the service development plan support packs to the regions before mid-January 2025.
Regions will submit their service development plans to the national review panel by February 2025.
Progress on medicines rolled out to date
Pharmac previously announced it is funding the medicines pembrolizumab and nivolumab for 7 cancers from 1 October.
On Thursday 10 October Pharmac announced three additional cancer medicines will become available from 1 November.
They are:
• cetuximab (branded as Erbitux) for bowel cancer
• bendamustine for relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (blood cancer)
• pemetrexed which is currently used for two types of cancer.
To stay up to date with medicine funding progress visit the Pharmac website Cancer and other medicines:
Track our progress to funding - Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga | NZ Government.
Other key Programme milestones to date
• Rapid identification of the resource required to deliver the first tranche of medicines and allocation of funding to the regions. This includes consideration of radiology and laboratory resource requirements.
• Recruitment is underway for the roles required across the motu to successfully deliver the first medicines. Health NZ’s recruitment team is having promising conversations with potential recruits. Please continue to share the employment opportunities with your networks (links below).
• Pharmacist | All Locations | Health New Zealand (tewhatuora.govt.nz)
• Medical Oncologist | All Locations | Health New Zealand (tewhatuora.govt.nz)
• A multi-agency communication plan is in place to provide regular and coordinated updates on implementing the new medicines with relevant internal and external stakeholders.
• Produced a consumer information leaflet outlining the medicines funding process, useful for speaking to with your patients.
Nine workstreams have been established and these are focusing on:
• Current capacity and capability within the system
• Mechanisms to increase service delivery in the short, medium, and long term
• How to measure the impact of system changes and how to identify, mitigate and resolve unintended consequences.
What’s coming up?
The programme teams are currently focusing on:
• Ongoing resource modelling to forecast the service impacts of newly funded medicines. This includes service volumes, the clinical time and expertise required to provide these additional volumes, so we can accurately calculate the FTE and other services required. Key resource areas being considered include (amongst others) medicine administration (i.e infusions), FSAs, on and off treatment reviews, imaging, laboratory testing, pharmacy, impacts on associated services, non-clinician administrative support and adverse event management.
• Identifying the key enablers and priorities for adaptation and development of service delivery to increase service capacity, stability and sustainability in the medium to long term (2025 onwards).
• Detailed requirements for nationally consistent, regionally tailored expansion of infusion sites, bringing services closer to home and into the community.
• Developing a nationally consistent blueprint to support regional service delivery networks to deliver the new medicines equitably within communities.
• Identification of considerations relevant to the non-cancer medicines funded as a result of the Increasing Access to Medicines initiative. This will include implications for services, costs and activities across hospital and community settings.
• Establishing a system to assess the benefits and impacts of service changes resulting from the Increasing Access to Medicines initiative.
• Evaluating and forecasting financial requirements for service delivery to continue the provision of new medicines and support future improvements to models of care.
• Continued communication with clinicians and other stakeholders to ensure progress to deliver the new medicines is widely understood.
There are three governance structures in place to support the delivery of the Programme:
The Executive Oversight Group provides national, cross-agency decision making and oversight of reporting.
• Di Sarfati, Director General of Health
• Margie Apa, Chief Executive, Health NZ
• Rami Rahal, Chief Executive, Te Aho o Te Kahu
• Richard Sullivan, Chief Clinical Officer, Health NZ
• Sarah Fitt, Chief Executive, Pharmac.
The Increasing Access to Medicines Clinical Leadership Group provides national clinical advice about service development and implementation.
• Rachel Haggerty, Co-Director, Funding - Hospitals, Planning, Funding and Outcomes
• Rami Rahal, Chief Executive, Te Aho o Te Kahu
• Richard Sullivan, Chief Clinical Officer, Health NZ
• Regional Cancer Clinical Leads
• Hauora Māori experts
• Multidisciplinary Team representatives.
Medicines Implementation Planning Programme Group provides national programme management including resource modelling, reporting, financial costing, forecasting, and data collection.
• Geraldine MacGibbon, Director Pharmaceuticals, Pharmac
• Nicola Hill, Deputy Chief Executive, Te Aho o Te Kahu
• Rachel Haggerty, Co-Director, Funding - Hospitals, Planning, Funding and Outcomes
• Bridget Kerkin, Manager, Knowledge, Translation and Implementation, Te Aho o Te Kahu
• Supported by key Health NZ and Te Aho o Te Kahu staff.
For more information and to subscribe to receive Medicines Implementation Programme updates email info@teaho.govt.nz.