John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I was proud to host a Parliamentary Friends of Medicines lunch event, discussing the important topic 'Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: a turning point in Australian patient care'. I thank my many colleagues of all political persuasions for their attendance, including the shadow minister for health, and also Dr Brendan Shaw, Chief Executive of Medicines Australia, and Wes Cook, Managing Director of Boehringer Ingelheim Australia-New Zealand, which is headquartered in my electorate of Bennelong. The guest speaker was Professor Chris Levi, Director of the John Hunter Hospital Acute Stroke Unit, who was joined by several atrial fibrillation patients to share their personal stories.

Atrial fibrillation, or AF, is the most common type of heart arrhythmia, affecting approximately half a million Australians. AF causes an irregular heartbeat, which leads to blood clots that can result in stroke. Approximately 40 per cent of Australians who suffer from AF, with a moderate to high risk of stroke, are undiagnosed or untreated. One in five stroke sufferers will die within the first month of a stroke. This means that tens of thousands of Australians are walking time bombs.

The social costs to our community cannot be calculated. Deloitte Access Economics have estimated that the 2011 cost of strokes from AF is over $560 million and that at least 3,500 strokes per year could be prevented through better diagnosis and treatment. Deloitte also found that there were nearly 46,000 first-ever strokes in 2011—that is 125 a day—leading to total healthcare costs of $1.4 billion.

This is a most serious health issue for our nation; yet the current treatment for stroke prevention in Australia is warfarin—a drug that first hit our shelves in 1948 as a type of rat poison. Warfarin has many shortcomings, and there is a better treatment—a treatment that was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration over a year ago and recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Council for listing on the PBS. Even the normally frugal Scottish government has this treatment on their PBS. Yet, regardless of the social and financial benefits to our nation, this treatment remains under review by this government, who have said they would rather invest in better education for the use of warfarin.

Barry Fairfax and Audrey Walsh are sufferers of AF and they travelled to Canberra to tell their personal stories yesterday. Barry and Audrey are two of the 25,000 patients across our nation who receive the new treatment for free, due to the generosity of Boehringer Ingelheim. Barry told the Friends of Medicines yesterday that he is thankful every day for the freedom that comes from the new medication, the freedom from dietary restrictions, and the freedom from needles.

Atrial fibrillation sufferers across Australia are praying that the government lists the new treatment on the PBS later this year. I urge the government to consider the great social and medical implications of listing this new treatment and not limit such important decisions to budgetary considerations.