Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this motion concerning the price reduction of chemotherapy drug docetaxel. The has put forward a blizzard of irrelevant considerations, because the motion before the House this evening deals with the specific circumstances in which the price reduction for chemotherapy drug docetaxel was imposed on the healthcare sector. This price reduction occurred at very short notice and generated very substantial concern amongst the providers of chemotherapy care.

Concerns were raised with me by a major private hospital in my electorate, the Sydney Adventist Hospital. In a letter written to me late last year, the chief executive of the hospital informed me of his concerns that this cut in the funding available under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for docetaxel would put at risk the current system for the preparation and supply of chemotherapy drugs through private hospitals and private clinics. He made the point that the cut in funding was of the order of 72 per cent—by any measure an extremely substantial reduction. He made the point that at his hospital there is an expectation of providing approximately 5,181 treatment sessions for chemotherapy patients in that year. He also pointed out that private hospitals and oncology clinics provide 60 per cent of all life-saving chemotherapy services in Australia. Accordingly, what we have here is an episode by which the current government has imposed, at short notice, a very dramatic reduction in the funding available under the PBS for docetaxel, which will have substantial flow-through effects on the capacity of the private hospital sector and private oncology clinics to provide life-saving chemotherapy services.

The concerns raised with me by the Sydney Adventist Hospital were also raised by a number of constituents. Families blighted by cancer, who are working through a treatment program, are now very anxious about the impacts on their treatment program of this very sharp reduction in the funding made available under the PBS for docetaxel. Let me quote from a letter I received from Debbie Quirk of St Ives who had this to say:

My family is touched by cancer with my husband having bowel cancer and undergoing a number of operations and chemotherapy treatments, which he is still receiving. We are concerned at the long-term implications of the federal government's 1 December ongoing changes to the PBS and the future funding of chemotherapy drugs. This concern is adding to the already significant impact that cancer has had on our lives.

There could be no more articulate statement of the reasoning behind the motion moved by the shadow minister and which we are debating this evening because that motion is underpinned by the opposition's concern for the impact on so many patients of this very dramatic reduction at very short notice in the funding available under the PBS. If patients are to be served in the most efficient way, if their treatment is to be carried out in a way which is most responsive to their clinical needs, it is very important that the funding arrangements which lie behind that treatment are managed in a consistent and long-term fashion. Unfortunately, we have seen precisely the opposite from this government. Indeed, it is surprising to learn that significant changes to the funding model were proposed as long ago as 2009 by pharmacists, oncologists and private hospitals. Unfortunately the government's response at that time was to introduce a short-term solution and what we have now seen is that that short-term solution has played out in ways that are causing great anxiety and stress to patients. I call upon the government, in the terms of this motion, to immediately resolve this very serious issue.

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