Hon Peter Dunne's Opening Address to the NZ Self-Medication Industry
15 October 2009
10.15am, Thursday, 15 October
Sky City Convention Centre, Auckland
Thank you for inviting me here today to speak about the importance of self-care and personal responsibility in the New Zealand Health Care reform agenda.
First, let me start by saying that I am delighted to see such a large turnout for your conference.
It demonstrates your real commitment to actively contributing to improving the health and well-being of New Zealanders and to being constructively engaged with the wider health sector, of which you are a crucial part.
We all recognise that New Zealanders can influence their own health through the choices they make every day.
Whether it is decisions about lifestyle or the medicines they take to treat or alleviate common conditions.
The Government firmly believes that all New Zealanders should be encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own health and be supported to self-manage where it is appropriate.
In order for this to happen, it is vital that New Zealanders have access to quality information that enables them to make good choices about their health.
With the growing cost of health care, as well as an ageing population and alarming levels of chronic disease in our communities, we all need to work together to ensure the best possible health outcomes are achieved for all New Zealanders.
Self-care is an important part of that and encompasses everything from measures such as lifestyle change to prevent ill health, through to treating minor illness with medicines or other therapies.
For some people, particularly those with chronic conditions, self-care requires significant ongoing support from health practitioners.
For others, it may be that they can effectively manage and maintain their health independently.
However – and this is a very important point – this does not mean that we should be discouraging contact with the GP or other primary health practitioners.
It is vital that people can access appropriate information and professional support along the way – and that they feel confident that they can do so.
Therefore, I believe there are two key components to enabling effective self-care:
1. Ensuring that people have access to good information and
2. Ensuring that they have access to the right health professionals when they need them.
As we are all aware, medicines can play a major role in a person’s self care. We live in an age where medicines are used in a variety of ways to manage our health, at levels and in ways that previous generations could only have dreamed of.
They can be used to prevent, treat and cure illness.
Medicines give us the chance to maintain our independence and enhance our quality of life.
In fact, New Zealand has long supported individuals to practice self-care with medicines for minor ailments, in particular through the systems we have in place to make medicines available over-the-counter.
I do not need to go in to detail on our medicines classification system, – it is, after all, your bread and butter!
Suffice it to say, that the extra “Pharmacist Only” tier we have for over-the-counter medicines in New Zealand – something not seen in many other jurisdictions – has meant that over the years New Zealanders have been able to access more and more medicines without a prescription.
I think that is a good thing that fits in well with the sense of personal responsibility that the Government seeks to promote.
This level of classification ensures people receive expert advice from a pharmacist when the medicine is purchased, which provides an opportunity for the pharmacist to support the person to manage their health effectively.
It also means the pharmacist can intervene and encourage a person to follow up with a doctor or other appropriate health professional if self-medication is not in their best interests.
An excellent recent example is the reclassification to Pharmacist Only for Omeprazole 10mg.
This reclassification provides another avenue for people to access a medicine of proven benefit where appropriate, but the Pharmacist Only criteria means that in cases where the pharmacist identifies risk, they can refer the person to their doctor to investigate the person’s symptoms more fully.
It is worth noting that while a significant proportion of the pharmaceuticals used in New Zealand are publicly funded, around $200 million is spent privately on pharmaceuticals each year.
$200 million is not an insubstantial sum of money on any terms and sure, some of that spending will be for unfunded prescription medicines, but a large chunk of it is for over-the-counter medicines.
This suggests that New Zealanders are already managing their health through the use of medicines available without prescriptions.
This very fact demonstrates how crucial it is for New Zealanders to have access to quality information that will help them make the right decisions. They need the kind of information that helps them judge when it is appropriate to self-medicate with non-prescription or complementary medicines, and when they might need to consult a health practitioner.
Pharmacists play a significant role in helping people understand their health, their illnesses, and indeed steps they can take to improve their wellbeing.
The likes of the Pharmacy Self-Care cards, developed by the Pharmaceutical Society, have enabled pharmacists to support people to better manage their health across a broad range of common health concerns.
Many New Zealanders see their community pharmacist for health advice, and I firmly believe they have a pivotal role to play in supporting people to manage their own health.
I believe our community pharmacists are a valuable resource we should be tapping in to more often to promote good health and wellbeing for individuals, families and communities.
We should also look to foster greater partnerships between practitioners including GPs, practice nurses, pharmacists and other primary health care practitioners to support people to manage their health better.
In this respect I was greatly encouraged by the positive contributions made by all these groups at the optimal use of medicines workshop I recently hosted in Wellington.
It was one of the actions arising from Medicines New Zealand, the national medicines strategy.
This event proved there is real willingness out there for health practitioners to work together with the common goal of achieving greater health outcomes for New Zealanders.
And, the Self Medication Industry, as the group representing manufacturers of OTC medicines has an important part to play:
Your products are significant contributors to the health of our people, so you need to be part of the process to ensure that people can use medicines to best effect, and minimise any harm.
Medicines – and over the counter medicines in particular – need to be promoted responsibly to both health professionals and the public.
You have an important role there.
You also have a role in engaging in constructive debate about medicines related issues affecting New Zealanders.
This brings me to the subject of pseudoephedrine.
As you are aware, the Prime Minister announced last week that pseudoephedrine will be reclassified as a class 2B controlled drug and will become a prescription medicine.
This decision is just one small part of a much broader range of initiatives aimed at tackling New Zealand’s alarming problem of methamphetamine or “P” abuse.
The decision to reclassify pseudoephedrine was not taken lightly, and a big part of that was the potential impact on everyday New Zealanders’ ability to access a trusted medicine they have used for years.
Yes, unfortunately, if all else fails, a very small minority of people may need to visit their GP for a prescription.
However, it is important to remember that over the counter options remain available – your products – both oral phenylepherine containing medicines and topical preparations such as drops and sprays.
Already, some pharmacies stock only these products and for the vast majority of people they work just fine.
It would be wonderful to see the entire sector acknowledge that while this decision may not be their preferred option, they understand the reasons why this is the route we are taking.
However, I have been in politics long enough to know that public policy issues seldom work this way.
I would suggest that now is the time to refocus your efforts on helping educate people about the OTC cough and cold preparations you have available.
The industry went to a lot of trouble reformulating medicines to make phenylepherine a viable alternative to pseudoephedrine – so arm people with the right information so that they can use the alternatives with confidence.
Once again, thank you for inviting me here today to be part of what will no doubt be an enlightening and constructive event.
I look forward to participating in the panel discussion later in the day.
All the best for your conference – make the most of it! You do important work.
Mark Stewart
Press Secretary to Hon Peter Dunne:
MP for Ohariu
Leader of UnitedFuture
Minister of Revenue
Associate Minister of Health
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
New Zealand
Direct Dial: 04 817 6985
Cell: 021 243 6985