The addition of Grey Power to Pharmac’s monthly stakeholder meeting and the assignment of a specific Pharmac contact for the Federation was a positive outcome from the Federation’s parliamentary visit in May this year.
“Our relationship with Pharmac had broken down three years ago so to see this repaired is invaluable,” said Federation president, Gayle Chambers. “In particular, eligibility for the shingles vaccine was discussed in depth with Ryan Perica, Pharmac spokesperson.
“He said concerns regarding the present 65 years only age eligibility for the free vaccine were being investigated. However, exploration for extra funding to extend the eligibility age to all seniors over the age of 65 was still in the early stages.
“During a meeting with the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, and the Minister for Seniors and Associate Minister for Health, Casey Costello, we further shared our concerns around the shingles vaccine’s limited availability.”
“We advised Ms Costello that the Federation was working with Shingrex, the manufacturer of the vaccine, and were also in talks with Pharmac. She was supportive of this work, wished us every success and asked that we visit with her on a regular basis.”
Disparities in community home care were also discussed.
The Minister said she was unaware there was a lack of standardised domestic care entitlement (home cleaning) across the country and advised that if the client’s care package included domestic care, the service providers had a mandate to provide that level of care.
Ms Costello also asked Grey Power to survey members around the country and identify if this disparity was occurring on a large scale, and in what areas.
The May delegation also met with Health Minister, Simeon Brown (see March Grey Power magazine). With only a 20-minute window, Mrs Chambers said focus was on surgery and specialist wait times.
“The Minister advised the Government had put a further $10 million into the health budget, tagged to reduce surgery wait times. To further ease surgery delays, he said the Government was also set to outsource surgeries to the private sector with the aim of reducing those wait times from two years to four months.”
Pleasingly, Minister Brown welcomed Grey Power’s suggestion that its board scope members around the country to ensure their waiting times were being addressed. He also commended Grey Power on its lobbying strengths, congratulating delegates for coming with a formal agenda, knowing what they were talking about, and not wasting his or their own valuable time.
