Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the government is aiming to make an announcement on funding cancer drug treatments this year, after failing to follow through on its election campaign promise in the Budget.
Last August, National promised to spend $280 million on 13 new cancer treatments that would have helped fight bladder, bowel, liver, lung, kidney and head and neck cancers in addition to melanoma.
It was to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription payment.
Instead, after funding was not allocated in last week's Budget, cancer patients and organisations have called for assurances the funding will still go ahead.
PM Luxon on funding promised cancer drugs
On Tuesday, Luxon confirmed on Morning Report an announcement would be made "very shortly" but the government had been working through procurement options over the past six to eight weeks.
"It has required more time than we anticipated and we're just working out the best way to procure those treatments.
"We're working really hard to make sure when we put the process together to secure those drugs and treatments, that we've actually got it set up on a sustainable ongoing basis, that it actually works."
He expected an announcement to be made "certainly this year", and before the next budget.
"There's two parts to it as to why it didn't make the Budget. The first thing is that we had to go find the $1.8 billion for core Pharmac funding which wasn't anticipated in the numbers we saw at election time, but became apparent once we were in government. That's important to do that job, that would've been unacceptable not to have funded it.
"The second thing is, genuinely, there's a number of options that are available as to how we best procure..."
The government was take cancer treatment seriously, he said, adding "it has become one of our top five goals".
"I know how people are feeling, I know how frustrated they feel about it, I know what cancer sufferers are going through. Even this weekend, I was talking to a young man who had just been diagnosed with brain cancer and we talked a lot about it.
Advocates pen letter urging govt to follow through on promise
A group of cancer organisations, including Patient Voice Aotearoa, Cancer Society, Lung Foundation NZ, Bowel Cancer NZ, Gut Cancer Foundation NZ and Head and Neck Cancer Support Network, have penned an open letter to Luxon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and the associate minister of health, David Seymour, urging them to "make good" on their promises.
"Cancer patients and advocates sat in disbelief when the budget was announced," the letter said. "We have now learnt these medicines may not be funded for at least a year. Patients don't have a year to wait and will sadly have to look at the heartbreaking scenarios your party wanted to put an end to."
The letter noted lives would be lost if the medicines were not funded with the utmost urgency and it implored the government to deliver on its commitment.
Cancer advocates gutted by lack of funding of 13 drugs
Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Dr Malcolm Mullholland said he and other organisations had been called by patients following the Budget asking what was going on.
"I, like everyone else, was in shock, disbelief and heartbreak listening to the Budget.
"We were all watching and eager with anticipation to hear more about the funding and now it's delayed for an unknown time."
Both Willis and Health Minister Shane Reti have said the drugs would eventually be funded, it just could not happen in this Budget.
The government was ending free prescriptions for millions of people from July and that money would be put back into Pharmac, Reti said.
Mulholland said cancer patients needed clarity on how quickly the drugs might be funded and which drugs would be on the list.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Budget, cancer treatments
Patients had been left in a predicament, contemplating re-mortgaging their homes and setting up Give-a-Little pages now the funding they had hoped would be available from 1 July had not eventuated.
"Urgency is key here on the part of the government.
"Time is not a luxury that many terminally ill cancer patients have."
He said Luxon and Willis "needed "to get a move on".
For any government there could be nothing more important than to prolong or save lives.
"Effectively what they've done is said that's not a priority to us."
'One of the worst things they can do'
On Tuesday, Willis told First Up the government would honour its campaign promise.
"We understand the urgency and our message to them [advocates] is we're working on it with the urgency it deserves."
The Finance Minister said now the government had fixed drug-buying agency Pharmac's funding shortfall of $1.8 billion, it could focus on purchasing more cancer medicines.
Willis said the government was intent on honouring the commitment it had made on funding the cancer drugs, although she would not give a definite timeline.
Comments made by Willis about the funding over the weekend seem like a "backflip", Mullholland said.
"I think the government didn't expect there to be as much backlash about the lack of funding as there has been. This is one of the worst things they can do - we're talking about people with terminal cancer.
"Patients had been waiting for July 1, when they believed funding would begin and now they've gone back on their word."
The government needed to act now, Mullholland said, and a timeframe needed to be publicly released showing when decisions would be made.
"They need to be crystal clear with that."