How does the operation of PHARMAC's 'Community Exceptional ...

Dugdale further advised that if none of these options expressed what the
government had in mind, and unless there was some clearly identifiable reason
for accepting the disadvantage of ambiguous general language which almost
guaranteed confusion “there should be substituted a provision setting out just
what in the view of the Government are the principles consistent with, which it
wishes Parliament to command that the interpretation of the proposed statute
be governed” (PB/150w The Law Commission, 2000).
The Health Select Committee recommended to parliament the following
changes to the Bill in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi: it was recommended
that Clause 4 be amended to limit the potential legal risks which may arise by
including the Treaty of Waitangi in the legislation. This would be given effect by
the Crown granting Maori participation in decision making about health policy,
governance and the delivery of services. There was a need to clarify the
meaning of the term ‘recognition and respect for the principles of the Treaty of
Waitangi’. The principles are partnership, participation and protection as
defined by the 1986 Royal Commission on Social Policy. These would be
detailed in a Maori Health Strategy prepared by the government.
The Ministry of Health commented in their departmental report that PHARMAC
was covered by the requirements of Clause 4 of the Bill concerning the Treaty
of Waitangi (PB/MOH 8 Ministry of Health, 2000). However, in relation to the
clauses in the Bill establishing PHARMAC 39 , no inclusion of a reference to the
Treaty of Waitangi or the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi was made.
Submission of the Rationing of Medicines
Jocelyn Brooks presented a submission to the Select Committee outlining what
she saw as an important weakness in the Bill. She felt that there was an
expectation that when a subsidy was applied, in the case of prescription
medicines, this caused fewer prescriptions to be issued by GPs. She quoted a
paper written by the Coalition for Public Health in 1986 40 relating to a salaried
health service pilot in Northland. She claimed the paper outlined how patients
in Northland on public subsidies were not receiving adequate levels of
39 Part 4 Sections 46-53
40 AUT Library Databases Searches on CINAHL, EBSCO Health, MEDLINE (via OVID & EBSCO), Web of Knowledge,
Web of Science, SCOPIS and Internet searching Google could not find a reference to the paper or the paper itself.
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