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

extra $180 million this government plans to spend on pharmaceuticals
over the next three years.
(Scoop, 2008)
The decision also applied to patients currently receiving a privately funded
course of twelve months Herceptin who had the option of completing the
remainder of their treatment funded by a public provider. Patients who had
recently completed a publicly funded nine week treatment or recently
discontinued a private twelve months course of Herceptin, were able to receive
the balance of a twelve month course of treatment publicly funded. However,
Ryall made this subsidy subject to the patient’s specialist’s clinical judgment
(Scoop, 2008).
Section 3: Media Reports
This section of data explores the way in which PHARMAC’s Community
Exceptional Circumstances policy has been portrayed in the media. Such
stories have been presented in the interests of patients, the interests of
PHARMAC, the interests of other groups and individuals and also the interests
of the media themselves. This study demonstrates the way the public has been
exposed to the Community Exceptional Circumstances debated through these
media presentations.
A library search produced 23 articles from the New Zealand media where the
central issue of the article was something to do with PHARMAC’s Community
Exceptional Circumstances policy. As described in Chapter 4 (Methods), all the
media stories were entered into NVivo 8 as sources. They were then analysed
using the Braun and Clark (2006) six step method.
I present here only nine of the 23 stories as examples to show the origins and
content and voices heard in the stories. I chose these nine stories because
each one highlights the range of problems presented about Community
Exceptional Circumstances and highlights typical responses from PHARMAC.
These examples also demonstrate the range, relevance and impact of the
stories.
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