(File image). Photo: 123RF
Patient advocates are accusing Health New Zealand of "cruelty" towards a small group of cancer patients, who are being forced to wait two more months for a newly-funded drug.
Pharmac has agreed to fund the medicine Keytruda from 1 October to treat five cancers: head and neck, triple negative breast, colorectal, bladder and Hodgkin lymphoma.
Patient Voice Aotearoa chairperson Malcolm Mulholland said the drug company Merck Sharp and Dohme had offered to give 20 to 30 patients free access in the meantime, but Health New Zealand had blocked it.
"This has to be the cruellest and dumbest decision made by Health New Zealand to date," he said.
"Here we have patients with terminal cancer being denied the best-in-class treatment for free that takes less infusion time in comparison with other available treatments, all because of Health New Zealand's inability to plan.
"What astounds me even more is that such schemes have existed in the past with no problem."
Last year when Keytruda was funded for lung cancer, an early access scheme was set up for 150 patients.
"Why, suddenly, can our hospitals not cope with an additional 20 to 30 patients around the country? This is bureaucracy gone mad."
For some patients, the October funding could come too late because their health may deteriorate to the point where they were no longer eligible for Keytruda, Mulholland said.
The disjointed, "dysfunctional", health system was failing the most vulnerable patients.
"If Pharmac, Health New Zealand, MSD, clinicians and patient advocates were invited to sit in the same room and discuss the rollout of Keytruda, then we may have been able to avoid the sad predicament cancer patients now find themselves in."
Te Whatu Ora chief clinical officer Richard Sullivan said they were seeking further advice.
Meanwhile, Pharmac has just announced plans to fund another bowel cancer drug - cetuximab - from November.
Patients hurt by government's bad decisions - Labour
Labour Party health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Labour Party health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall slammed the delay for patients accessing Keytruda, blaming the government's bad decisions.
"Te Whatu Ora has been offered Keytruda free of charge but is delaying taking up the offer by two months," she said.
"We don't accept the government's spin that the health system isn't ready to deliver these treatments; Keytruda is used in the treatment of eight cancers, for two of those cancers it would reduce workload on hospitals if introduced tomorrow. For other uses only some hospitals have concerns about readiness."
The government needed to reveal what would be different on 1 October, as opposed to 1 August that meant the medicines could not be given now, she said.
"Once again Dr Reti has shown he is unwilling to push to get patients what they need," said Verrall.