Pharmacy Daily | Butler erred in defunding NPS: Ryan

DOCTOR-TURNED-FEDERAL MP, Dr Monique Ryan, is urging the Federal Government to roll back its plans to defund NPS MedicineWise (PD 14 Sep).

Speaking in the House of Representatives yesterday, in support of the Government's National Health Amendment (General Co-payment) Bill 2022, the Member for Kooyong said the Government should reconsider its decision to pull the pin on funding NPS MedicineWise, which was initially announced as part of the Coalition's Budget (PD 05 Apr).

Ryan said that over its 24-year history the organisation had played a key role in supporting the best-practice use of medicines and medication safety, and voiced concerns over the plans to transfer its functions to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

"Its importance has been highlighted in the reports from the Aged Care Royal Commission on the safety of medications and the frequency of medication errors in aged-care facilities," she said.

"The Albanese Government Minister Butler had the chance to reverse the decision to cancel the NPS MedicineWise scheme, but he chose not to do so.

"I believe the Albanese Government has erred in not reversing the decision to cancel the NPS MedicineWise program.

"Proposals to transfer its activities to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care or to competitive grant processes are undeveloped and relatively underfunded.

"Given that the government spends $14 billion a year on the PBS, the $24 million a year spent on the NPS is a pittance, especially given that this program has delivered a net return on investment of more than two to one to the Federal Government by delivering more than $1.1 billion in direct savings for the PBS and NPS - improvements like a 25% decrease in the over-prescription of some antibiotics, prevention of 50,000 unnecessary scans for low back pain, and half a million fewer scripts for opioids, saving us more than $9 billion.

"The health of the Australian people and our budget bottom line will only be improved by ongoing support from our government for consumer education programs which improve health literacy."