The recently announced Senate Inquiry into the process of listing medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) has been welcomed by the Australian Pain Management Association Inc. (APMA) on behalf of people living with persistent pain and their families.

The Senate agreed in late June to support a motion by NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells to refer a range of issues arising from the Government’s policy to indefinitely defer PBS listing of many medicines to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee. The inquiry by the References Committee is due for report by 18th August 2011, and follows a lengthy and vigorous campaign by a wide range of consumer health organisations.

APMA Secretary Lil Carrigan announced that APMA would make a detailed submission to the inquiry, in which it would outline its fears of serious consequences to a wide range of vulnerable people unable to access necessary medicines as a result of the Government policy. “It has been suggested that drugs required to save lives will be approved, and it is ‘only’ less serious effects such as pain relief which will be affected”. “Given that persistent (chronic) pain is universally recognised as a major cause of suicide, these suggestions are not only insensitive but ignorant.” Ms Carrigan stressed that “lack of or inappropriate medications for persistent pain will worsen that pain, worsen mental health outcomes, increase the costs incurred by the community as well as affected individuals and their families, and be a barrier to many returning to the workforce” she said.

In a campaign led by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia, APMA along with some sixty other consumer health groups endorsed a Statement of Public Intent on this issue earlier this month (available here). The long standing integrity of the pharmaceutical assessment process undertaken by the Government’s expert advisory body the Pharmaceutical Benefit Advisory Committee is seriously threatened and APMA looks forward to the opportunity for Parliamentary scrutiny of:

• the criteria and advice being provided to Federal Cabinet in order to make decisions on which medicines should be subsidised by the PBS;
• whether that information is in addition to that being given to the experts on the PBAC;
• what financial impact this new process will have on the Federal Budget;
• whether Cabinet is taking into account the potential savings to the health budget that new medicines bring to the sick and chronically ill by allowing them to avoid more expensive hospital or GP visits.

As CHF CEO Carol Bennett has stated, “This is a perplexing issue for health consumers and the vulnerable in our community and this Inquiry will allow interested parties to put their own experiences and knowledge before our politicians and the public.” “In a developed country like Australia, the provision of affordable, timely and effective medicines is a right that should not become a political bargaining chip or a short-term measure for returning the Federal Budget to surplus,” Ms Bennett said.

You can read APMA’s detailed submission here or access the dozens of other submissions made to the inquiry here. The Committee has yet to confirm whether it will hold public hearings.

More information about the issue here.