Boost for Pharmac as $13.2b poured into health sector
The nation’s drug-buying agency, Pharmac, has been given a near 20% boost in the Budget, as part of a massive spend-up on health reforms and upgrades to crumbling health infrastructure.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced a massive $13.2 billion boost for health in Budget 2022 over the next four years, with $11.1b going to the health reforms, $1.3b to health infrastructure including the redevelopment of hospitals in Whangarei, Nelson and Canterbury, $202 million on mental health and $299m on supporting Māori health services.
Health Minister Andrew Little said it was the biggest increase to Pharmac’s medicines budget, with $191m to be invested over two years.
The total expected spending for 2022 is $29b.
‘‘Pharmac has assured me it will use this funding to secure as many medicines on its list as it can, with a focus on better cancer treatments, to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible benefit from this biggest-ever increase to its medicines funding,’’ Little said.
Pharmac’s budget will be $71m higher in the next financial year and $120m higher in the 2023/24 financial year.
The Government will put $1.8b in to the new health system this year. District Health Board deficits, expected to total about $550m for the past year, will be wiped ahead of the new Health NZ and a Māori health authority starting in July. The new system will then get $1.3b next year.
A third of all new spending in this Budget goes into health.
Little said the boards had run deficits in 12 out of the last 13 years, which ate into money set aside for initiatives such as hospital maintenance.
‘‘Ongoing deficits have also created significant uncertainty health for patients, health system planning and the workforce, particularly around whether there will be money in the next year’s budget to cover the previous year’s deficit,’’ Little said.
The Government in 2021 announced it would abolish all 20 district health boards and create a single, national health organisation and a Māori health authority.
The Māori Health Authority will get $168m over four years to commission services, $20.1m to support Iwi-Māori partnership boards, $30m for Māori primary and community care providers, and $39m for Māori workforce development.
Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare said Māori die at twice the rate of non-Māori of cardiovascular disease, while Māori tamariki have a mortality rate of one and half times higher than non-Māori.
‘‘What Māori have always wanted is a health system that takes care of them and that meets their needs in a way that makes them feel comfortable, but that is not what our health system has delivered to date,’’ he said.
Community-level health care will be bolstered by $102m over four years to grow their workforces and work more closely with allied health staff and social workers. General practices in high-needs areas will also get $86m over four years to extend opening hours.
About $76m over four years will go on developing the primary care health workforce, including nursing, physiotherapy, optical services and pharmacists – $39m of this will go to Hauora Māori workforce development.
Ambulance services will get an extra $166.1m over the next four years, adding 48 ambulances and 13 other vehicles, 248 more paramedics and frontline staff, while air ambulance services will get $90.7m to replace ageing aircraft and add at least one new helicopter and crew to the network.