Some important messages and learnings from this week's 'Valuing Life—Medicines Access Summit' in Wellington, with patients and clinicians leading with a straight-talking critique of decision-making that has clearly resonated with New Zealand's political leaders.

The importance of scrutinising claims involving data, particularly regarding health care, and the double standard regarding productivity. Kudos to a company for welcoming a new listing but calling out that it has taken over 650 days since TGA registration. The challenge of social media for vulnerable communities.

The 2024-25 Budget is fast approaching. We discuss what to look for, where to exercise caution, and what to ignore.  More examples of where informing is confused with consulting leading to the problematic implementation of reform.

The health department is allowing employees to vote on a new name for its main building. We have some suggestions. Is our health system capable of learning from patient experience and the challenges many severely immunocompromised patients face battling to access treatments and immunisation?

This is a podcast without any mention of that HTA Review! Delegated decision-making is a significant feature of Australia's health system. How can advocacy and any push for change be effective without understanding how delegation works? The reality is that when a minister delegates a decision-making power, they formally remove themselves from the decision.

Where do we start? Last year, the minister described Australia's HTA decision-making as clunky and agreed that it led to unnecessary deaths. How does that admission sit with his latest appointments? We start putting together the pieces of a worrying puzzle and constructing a timeline.  

The Albanese Government has committed an additional $3 billion for the new Community Pharmacy Agreement. The details are yet to come, but the statement and confirmed financial commitment reflect a Cabinet-endorsed Budget decision. Health Minister Mark Butler said he would now engage with "other stakeholders with an interest in the pharmacy sector to finalise separate arrangements". What do people think that means? We discuss that process, that the money will probably need to be found, and the...

We discuss speculation surrounding the new Community Pharmacy Agreement and why successive governments support the framework approaching its 35th year. Community pharmacies are a good partner for the government, and so is the industry, but for a very different reason. We also urge the industry to be true to its stated commitment to patients and publicly explain its concerns about the HTA review options paper.

The industry must be congratulated for firming up its criticism of the HTA Review options paper, and it should start speaking publicly about its concerns. The history and how agreements with the federal government have evolved over time. Another disappointment on newborn screening.

Nothing frustrates an advisory committee more than the word 'advisory'.  Why any extended powers will be used to their full extent and not in the way many people would like.

The consultation process for the HTA Review options paper upfront invalidates the input of companies, patients and clinicians with an unprecedented 'declaration' process that defines any relationship or expression of a lived experience as a conflict.

It was not an easy or enjoyable decision, but the stakes are very high for Australian patients, given the apparent risks to the future of funded access to health technologies. We also discuss Senate Estimates, a new argument to excuse non-action on newborn screening, Medicare bulk-billing and teddy bears, and the right to disconnect.

With just nine days remaining for stakeholders to submit their feedback on the Health Technology Assessment Review options paper, patients must have access to all pertinent information. BioPharmaDispatch interviewed Medicines Australia chief executive and reference committee member Liz de Somer on 31 January. The interview was published on 1 February. Medicines Australia approved all included quotes. The association now appears reluctant to answer questions about its approach to the review's...

The 'Swiss cheese' theory might explain why history is constantly repeating itself and why action is required to avoid the worst aspects of the proposals in the HTA Review options paper.

We are back for 2024 with no end of issues to discuss, starting with the HTA review options paper and the coincidence of many reviews and processes delivering outcomes just ahead of the May Budget.

Looking ahead, the industry needs to find a framework for challenging the government on its decision-making, and awards that recognise the bad, the ugly and the good in 2023. Timeline 0:00 - 12:00 - Why the industry needs to find a framework for challenging the government in its decision-making. Awards 12:00 - 17:00 - 'We definitely seriously want to improve transparency and accountability but just not on this Award' 17:00 - 24:45 - 'The most offensive appearance at a parliamentary inquiry...

More silence on a critical social issue. The report of the NDIS review delivers a range of recommendations, including the adoption of an evidence-based funding framework, but is it practical or even possible? Some interesting comments from NDIS minister Bill Shorten might open the door for advocates of health system reform, a debate that always comes down to a question of health system financing.

We discuss the apparent reluctance to speak out on one important issue. The Government's entirely predictable response to the inquiry on access to new medicines and novel medical technologies, why disappointment is the wrong reaction, and the importance of giving New Zealand's government time to reform Pharmac.

The power of language and the habit governments have of weaponising the word 'sustainable'. How the term has been used to 'gently' justify breaking election commitments and its wider impact on policy development and change.

Some interesting undertones at the Pharmacy Guild's annual parliamentary dinner, a  slow start to 60-day dispensing and whether the plan for a new agreement to be in place by 1 March is realistic. The industry is very effective at advocacy, but not in the way it might think or hope, and the weight loss therapies that have system-shaping implications.

Any nominations for the 'It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time' award? The opportunity to shift the current strategic alignments that impact decision-making, the challenge of diagnosis and why the existing decision-making framework makes it inevitable.

The 'inner circle' running the HTA review and the obsession with confidentiality. An invitation for the government to launch preemptive action to prevent the publication of information that could meet the 'confidentiality' criteria and the least surprising outcome of 2023.

Strange accounting in the health department's annual report with 'adjustments and notional entries required for presentation only' bumping the PBS spend by $1.2 billion. What does it mean? History matters when it comes to policy, with almost nothing happening that the industry did not negotiate, including the time taken to list recommended medicines. This is why the lessons of history are so important for the industry's leaders.

Genomics and this week's CanForum, at which Rare Cancers Australia hosted several interesting discussions, particularly highlighting the patient experience and the federal government's desultory plan for an 'advisory committee'. Should the result of last weekend's referendum trigger a rethink by organisations that actively supported the proposed change?