Medicine access equity monitoring and outcomes framework

We’re establishing baseline measures of inequity for access to funded medicines for our priority conditions.

Context for the equity discussion

These reports mark the first time we have measured equity of access to funded medicines for these key long-term conditions. Our insights are drawn from dispensing data for Māori and Pacific peoples to treat:

  • asthma
  • cardiovascular conditions
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • gout
  • type 2 diabetes.

We are publishing our insights to raise awareness of current medicine access inequities. We intend that they spark discussions on medicine access equity across the health sector. We welcome any feedback on our insights.

We will be adding insights over time. We will have insights for each condition that compare Māori and Pacific peoples to the rest of the population.

Published reports

Gout insights – Impact on Māori

Pacific peoples health – Gout data insights

Methodology

An established external review process is in place to ensure the data used within each report is robust and has credibility with experts in the field before public release. External review of these insights included pharmacoepidemiology, clinical specialist (condition specific), general practitioner, and Māori health.

Our data is taken from the NZ Pharmaceutical Collection. It doesn’t include people who have not been initially prescribed long-term medicines for these conditions. As such, we believe access differences for Māori and Pacific people are likely to be understated.

Pharmaceutical data web tool(external link)

Who to contact

We welcome your feedback on these insights. You can also contact us for information about the methods used and guidance on interpreting the data.

Email: accessequity@pharmac.govt.nz