Pharmac chief executive Natalie McMurtry is three weeks into living in New Zealand for her new role. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Pharmac chief executive Natalie McMurtry is three weeks into living in New Zealand for her new role. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Pharmac’s chief executive, Natalie McMurtry, hopes to prove the drug-buying agency “has the backs of patients and families”, something she believes it is yet to achieve amid an ongoing cultural reset.
McMurtry, from Canada, is just three weeks into her five-year contract leading Pharmac and is tasked with continuing effortsto improve the agency’s standing with patients and advocacy groups after years of degradation.
Sitting down for her first media interview, McMurtry said the idea of uprooting her life in Canada and moving to New Zealand hadn’t crossed her mind until an email from a recruitment agency dropped into her inbox early this year.
“Normally I get a lot of these kinds of emails, but when I got it [from] Pharmac, I thought, ‘Wow, actually, I kind of want to read this one’, because I knew about Pharmac, I knew about their model.”
Starting out as a pharmacist and completing a master’s in technology innovation, the now mother of four went on to become a clinical practice leader in a paediatric pharmacy, mentoring other pharmacists in how best to treat children.
She then managed a large pharmacy within the University of Alberta Hospital, joined the Alberta Health Services executive leadership team, and became the assistant deputy minister in charge of Alberta’s public drug plan, alongside other roles concerning drug procurement.
Pharmac chief executive Natalie McMurtry in her Wellington office. Photo / Mark Mitchell
However, Pharmac’s independence from government in drug selection and procurement was a key feature that drew McMurtry to the Southern Hemisphere.
“In Alberta, the [health] minister decides in terms of what drugs are on the list,” she said.
“Sometimes that can create a lot of pressure on the politician, also a lot of pressure on the team … I think [Pharmac] is the right model.”
The agency’s independence has not always protected it from political pressure. Most recently, the National Party’s commitment before the 2023 election to fund 13 specific cancer drugs challenged Pharmac’s role as an independent decision-maker.
That promise, which was absent from Budget 24 and sparked a backlash from patient advocates, was eventually honoured in a $600 million funding uplift for Pharmac over four years.
With National currently facing pressure over a commitment by former Health Minister Dr Shane Reti to fund blood cancer medicines, McMurtry said she would utilise skills learned in 25 years working in the public service to ensure Pharmac’s independence was upheld.
“It’s good for the integrity of the process because you try to keep it consistent and a public service depending on [being] not necessarily influenced by the politics of the day, but evidence and sound, consistent decision-making over time.
“Of course, politicians can always make the choice on how much money to give us, and then we’ll do our consistent approach to allocating it fairly and equitably.”
Pharmac’s relationship with patients and advocacy groups had been extremely strained in recent years and was one of the factors leading to the resignation of former chief executive Sarah Fitt in February.
Former Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt (left) sitting with Pharmac chairwoman Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell
At the time, Pharmac board chairwoman Paula Bennett admitted the agency’s reputation for being transparent was poor and its relationships with external stakeholders “weren’t great”.
In June, a consumer and patient working group was established, featuring some of Pharmac’s most vocal critics, to engage with the agency and provide regular feedback.
McMurtry, who met with the group on her second day in the job, didn’t believe “we’re totally there yet” regarding Pharmac’s cultural reset, but was optimistic it would improve, noting her belief in leading with empathy.
“I would like Pharmac to be seen as an organisation that has the backs of patients and families, that we’re getting them, as much [as] possible, access to the medicines they need or the technologies they need.
“What we’ve heard is that patients and family … are not feeling like we’re necessarily doing it all the time.
“The more you involve them, the more they are right into the process and understanding, the better you can be, so I think that that is a huge priority for us.”
Adam Pearse is the deputy political editor and part of the NZ Herald’s press gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
