The 'Dispatched' Podcast

Australia is not getting a Senate inquiry on the pandemic. The Albanese Government is amending PBS pricing legislation after the Federal Court confirmed that the interpretation of 'agreements' is meaningless compared to the law. The weekly existence of a health minister reveals the practical challenge of achieving reform.

Surprises have become a regular feature of our systems. A better understanding of the details would eliminate the risk. Great news for an Australian family that has suffered the real consequences of policy failures and one host springs a surprise subject on the other.

Strange policy announcements in Queensland. The HTA Review options paper identified the primary cause of access delays - multiple submissions - and proposed changes to incentivise companies to offer price cuts in return for faster listings. Stakeholders should push for 'sunset clauses' in all legislated changes. We discuss the challenges facing a family trying to access support via the N...

Why has everything become so political? Our system of insiders and outsiders when it comes to policy. Can the insiders even recognise the problem? The Government's response to the Disability Royal Commission means major changes are coming, including to health decision-making.

Too many still need to understand the difference between policy and health technology assessment - HTA is an instrument of policy. Stakeholders must also consider their broader responsibility to public health and how decisions in one part of the system flow onto others.

Some parts of an institution face the challenge of avoiding complicity in wrong approaches or repeating and even adopting its exclusionary way of working. It is hard. Yet, acting in the interests of patients can require one part of the institution to act against the others. The industry is facing this challenge. 

The combination of political will and trust should be used to help more patients. The poor treatment of a family in Western Australia, the pending departure of one of the greatest advocates for patient access, and the political realignment sending a  message to companies.

It was an interesting week with the Government acting based on conscience to ensure access to medicine and an advisory committee losing it in a public statement. We also discuss the inequity between public programs.

Vapes! The parliament backed a ban on retail distribution of the products, but an amendment will make nicotine-containing vapes more accessible via pharmacy, and businesses will respond accordingly. Also, why should other stakeholders be concerned about how this amendment was negotiated?

The new Community Pharmacy Agreement is a remarkable document. We explain why it should be read and the negotiation analysed. We also discuss the draft National Immunisation Strategy, the events in New Zealand, and whether we can extract ourselves from a policy discussion that is mostly about health financing. 

It's a 'swear jar' episode we discuss the obsession with health technology assessment, why it is used to guide what is just price negotiation, meaning it takes too long, how decision-makers subordinate patient needs to this negotiation, what the future could look like and how it might get even worse.

Budget Estimates and officials acknowledge the slow uptake of 60-day prescriptions. The 'professionally edited' HTA review final report is with the minister, more evidence of the need to watch the diabetes tender and the need for action to ensure the legitimacy of Australia's new National Immunisation Strategy.

The deeper issue revealed by the failure to consult on Australia's new National Immunisation Strategy. One year on from the health minister's admission that people die waiting for access to health technologies and disappointment for patients in New Zealand.

We discuss the BPD Annual Conference, our favourite speakers and panels, including Pharmacy Guild National President Professor Trent Twomey and Dr Ian Watt AC, and the focus on women's health and New Zealand.  Why we should encourage more straight-talking and the connectivity that links so many different parts of the health system.

Rather than dismissing Budget realities, stakeholders could be invited into the Government's confidence and told to prepare for a mature conversation about the challenge of funding the PBS and a serious reform agenda to facilitate faster access to health technologies as Australia enters a period of serious fiscal consolidation.

Patients and pharmacies are the winners, but the Budget raises more questions than it answers, with a large Contingency Reserve and what appears to be a raft of decisions taken but not announced.

Budget week is upon us. We share our experiences working on Budgets and discuss the behind-the-scenes process Governments undertake to develop their major annual set-piece announcement. Budgets have changed over the years with the increasing use of 'hidden' measures - which is why caution is required. Who should be telling who about communicating with patients?

Some important messages and learnings from this week's 'Valuing Life—Medicines Access Summit' in Wellington, with patients and clinicians leading with a straight-talking critique of decision-making that has clearly resonated with New Zealand's political leaders.

The importance of scrutinising claims involving data, particularly regarding health care, and the double standard regarding productivity. Kudos to a company for welcoming a new listing but calling out that it has taken over 650 days since TGA registration. The challenge of social media for vulnerable communities.

The 2024-25 Budget is fast approaching. We discuss what to look for, where to exercise caution, and what to ignore.  More examples of where informing is confused with consulting leading to the problematic implementation of reform.

The health department is allowing employees to vote on a new name for its main building. We have some suggestions. Is our health system capable of learning from patient experience and the challenges many severely immunocompromised patients face battling to access treatments and immunisation?

This is a podcast without any mention of that HTA Review! Delegated decision-making is a significant feature of Australia's health system. How can advocacy and any push for change be effective without understanding how delegation works? The reality is that when a minister delegates a decision-making power, they formally remove themselves from the decision.

Where do we start? Last year, the minister described Australia's HTA decision-making as clunky and agreed that it led to unnecessary deaths. How does that admission sit with his latest appointments? We start putting together the pieces of a worrying puzzle and constructing a timeline.  

The Albanese Government has committed an additional $3 billion for the new Community Pharmacy Agreement. The details are yet to come, but the statement and confirmed financial commitment reflect a Cabinet-endorsed Budget decision. Health Minister Mark Butler said he would now engage with "other stakeholders with an interest in the pharmacy sector to finalise separate arrangements". What...

We discuss speculation surrounding the new Community Pharmacy Agreement and why successive governments support the framework approaching its 35th year. Community pharmacies are a good partner for the government, and so is the industry, but for a very different reason. We also urge the industry to be true to its stated commitment to patients and publicly explain its concerns about the HTA review op...