The funding needed to supply 13 new cancer drugs National promised before the election won’t become available for another year at least, Health Minister Shane Reti has confirmed.

Reti claims his party’s policy to provide those new drugs hasn’t changed because the mechanism touted to fund them - reinstating prescription co-payments - hasn’t taken effect yet.

However, he acknowledged today’s Budget is missing the $70 million National included in its pre-election policy last year - something that has prompted disappointment from cancer patients and organisations.

The Cancer Society said it was “deeply disappointed” by the lack of additional funding for cancer medicines.

“Our hearts go out to those living with cancer and their whānau who had their hopes raised by National’s election promise last August to fund 13 cancer drugs, only to see them crushed today,” Cancer Society national executive Dr Rachael Hart said.

“Today’s announcement means that many will continue to struggle to afford the medicines they desperately need, leading to unnecessary suffering and potentially worse health outcomes.”

Reti was visibly pleased to oversee major spending for health in the Budget with more than $16 billion set aside for the next three Budgets to address health cost pressures and maintaining services, while free breast cancer screening and emergency department security was expanded.

Missing was National’s commitment to fund 13 new cancer drugs that were recommended by the Cancer Control Agency. National’s pre-election policy document said it would cost $280m over the next four years, with $70m of that funding starting in the 2024/25 financial year.

It was supposed to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription co-payment that the former Government removed. The current Government’s plan was to reinstate the co-payment from July 1 with exemptions for people under 14, over 65 and holders of Community Services Cards.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday expressed regret the new drugs couldn’t be funded in this Budget but restated her determination to see the promise honoured.

Reti was less regretful when speaking to the Herald, arguing the policy had always been that the drugs would be funded through revenue from the co-payments and that hadn’t taken effect yet.

“My expectation is that when we have revenue towards year one from co-payments, then we’ll look as to whether we need further revenue from Pharmac and I’ll have discussions with my colleagues and then we’ll work with Pharmac to meet the obligations that we said we would,” he said.

He didn’t disagree when it was put to him the Budget did not contain the $70m National had budgeted pre-election.

Hart said that while the Cancer Society appreciated the Government making a verbal commitment to improving Pharmac, “without additional funding, these efforts can only go so far”.

“Enhancing Pharmac without additional funding is dead-end. We need both commitment and resources to make meaningful progress.”

“Health Minister Dr Reti has ‘not ruled out funding the drugs in future budgets’. But this may be too late. The Government had previously stated that funding these medicines was a priority, but this priority has now been deferred by a year. People who need the drugs now may not have that year to wait,” Hart said.

Meanwhile, Act leader and Associate Health minister David Seymour said money had been put aside to deal with a $270 million fiscal cliff in Pharmac but “I don’t think anybody knew how big the fiscal cliff was.”

He believed those supporting funding for the 13 new cancer drugs had been let down by the circumstances the Government faced.

“I don’t think the Government has made an active choice, and I’m not sure how the Government could have made a better choice.

“Obviously if we didn’t face this fiscal cliff situation that would have been pretty tough, but Nicola Willis and I just sat down and looked at each other and said, ‘We don’t have any choice, we’ve got to put money in to deal with this fiscal cliff’,” Seymour said.

Emergency department (ED) security also received a boost in the Budget with almost $31m over the next four years going towards an extra 44 full-time security staff in eight “high-risk” EDs - Waitākere, North Shore, Auckland City, Middlemore, Waikato, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin hospitals.

Christchurch Hospital is one of the high-risk ED receiving more security through Budget funding. Photo / RNZ / Nate McKinnon

Another 10 staff would be funded to provide support anywhere across the country following serious incidents or during peak holiday periods.

During the summer, the Government spent $5.7m to employ 200 more security staff, given more security incidents occurred during the holiday period. That was scaled down in later months.

Reti said the summer boost had been “generally beneficial”, particularly in smaller areas.

He noted how proper training was required before security staff could be placed in hospitals, indicating that was an obstacle during summer when the Government announced the funding only three weeks before Christmas.

Reti said trainers would be funded to ensure the staff would be sufficiently prepared.

Asked about areas outside the high-risk zones, Reti said the 10 FTE would be tasked with providing support at holiday hotspots or during times of great demand like on the East Coast when the Rhythm and Vines festival was being held.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.