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

Chapter 8: Conclusions
Introduction
This research has examined five emergent themes about PHARMAC’s
Community Exceptional Circumstances policy by utilising test-questions which
were developed in the philosophical framework in Chapter four.
There are a number of elements where this work has made a contribution to
health research in New Zealand (and possibly internationally) that are worth
noting. This study is the first time a distributive justice template has been used to
assess the practice of a New Zealand government funded health agency.
Indeed, this is the first time triangulated research on PHARMAC has fully
engaged the distributive justice principles of fairness and equity. Other ‘firsts’ are
the interviewing of present or past Ministers of Health who have had a significant
engagement with PHARMAC and provided astute and discerning views of the
agency. This is the first time OIA requests to multiple government agencies have
been extensively used in a thesis on PHARMAC. Such a gathering of official
documents, examining both the policy and operational activities of a government
agency, has shown that research can be enhanced using this data procurement
method.
This chapter contains a discussion on my research findings and the use of the
test-questions, based on Rawls’ and Sen’s principles, to examine these findings.
I include a discussion about the limitations of the research and a section on
further research which could be undertaken to develop the content and usability
of the test-questions.
In this chapter I summarise the contribution I consider this research has made to
our understanding of distributive justice and public policy and make closing
comments about the thesis question. Finally, there have also been some political
developments relating to PHARMAC which have occurred since the research
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