Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Pharmac’s chair has met with senior executives and leaders today, amid a deepening crisis over internal emails targeting broadcaster Rachel Smalley and widening calls for the drug agency’s CEO to be sacked.
But while Pharmac refuses to answer specific questions about the future of CEO Sarah Fitt - who is now overseas on pre-planned leave - one of the senior leaders who wrote a derogatory email has reached out to Smalley directly to apologise, saying his email about her was “well short of what I expect of myself and it was unfair on you”.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has also stepped into the crisis today, saying the internal emails were “totally unacceptable”, while a group of cancer patients’ families and patient advocates say Fitt needs to be sacked.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Pharmac chair Steve Maharey said he had met “face to face with the senior leadership team today and instructed them to identify actions that can be taken to prevent a situation like this from happening again”.
Maharey said he expected these actions to be presented at the next board meeting later this month. “The full board will consider if the actions suitably address the matter.”
It is unclear whether Fitt was at the meeting virtually - an out-of-office email reveals she is on leave until October 24.
It is understood this leave was planned before the Herald and Smalley revealed on Friday that Fitt wrote several emails, including regular messages to her communications team about Smalley.
Another senior staff member described a “nauseating” Smalley interview on her radio show, while another said she’s “gunna be out of a job” with the closure of Today FM. A third Pharmac staff member said Smalley would be “mega shitty” about not getting an interview with their CEO, while a fourth worker wrote a limerick about the broadcaster.
In July 2022, Fitt sent to her communications team a Today FM tweet, highlighting an article that Smalley had written on the radio station’s website about a group of cancer patients funding their own drugs. They would have been dead if they were relying on the public system, Smalley wrote.
“Sigh...” wrote Fitt in the email header field.
One of her communications team replied that Smalley was an activist not a journalist, to which Fitt responded: “Yep agree, the good thing is that she has a terrible time slot [on Today FM] and not much of a following.”
On another occasion, Fitt floated the idea of a trip to Auckland to meet Smalley: “Anything is possible, although not wild on a 6am studio appearance. Was thinking of a separate meeting off-air with her. Just an idea. If we don’t do her, we could do NZ Herald/Stuff/usual suspects or we could just go up and sit in the Viaduct in the sun.”
One former Pharamc senior leader, Peter Alsop, who now works in the chief executive’s office at the Ministry of Health, wrote to Smalley on Friday morning, saying she was “right to call me out over that unprofessional email reference to you”.
Alsop had written an email to a colleague describing Smalley’s interview on Today FM with patient advocate Fiona Tolich as “nauseating”. Referencing another item, he said: “you can hear some shit you really don’t want to hear (sort of like a Smalley-Tolich interview!)”
“I want to apologise for that,” Alsop said in an email to Smalley on Friday.
“It fell well short of what I expect of myself, and it was unfair on you and the interests of other people (the context that the comments sat within).
“I respect that you and other journalists have a job to do. While there will be tensions and differences at times, it’s our job to front, be accountable, and uphold high standards of public service.
“Again, I want to apologise.”
The Prime Minister stepped into the row today, telling the Herald that “the comments made by the chief executive of Pharmac are totally unacceptable”.
But, Hipkins said, the comments were “a matter for the board”.
“Pharmac is an independent organisation and it would be inappropriate for me as Prime Minister to interfere in an employment matter there.”
Hipkins said he had not had any conversations with Maharey, a former Labour Government minister, about the matter.
“That wouldn’t be appropriate either. The Minister of Health certainly has - that is the appropriate course of action.
“The Minister of Health has certainly conveyed that the Government is not happy with basically what’s happened here.
“We don’t think that’s an appropriate way for a chief executive to behave.”
Maharey told the Herald last week that Fitt had assured the board “this was an isolated and unique situation and that the comments are not reflective of Pharmac’s culture”.
“Further, the chief executive has expressed her regret and apologised for the language used in the internal emails.”
Neither Maharey nor Pharmac answered specific questions today about who Fitt had apologised to - Smalley has not received anything from her - or whether her role was still tenable.
A “disappointed” Health Minister Ayesha Verrall told the Herald last week that the emails were “unprofessional”; Maharey said the emails were “unprofessional” and “unacceptable”; and Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes said the comments were “completely unacceptable for public servants”.
Three families forced to fund expensive drugs for their loved ones’ cancer fights say emails sent by Pharmac’s CEO are “offensive, unprofessional and incomprehensible” and make her position untenable. In an open letter today, they call for Fitt to be sacked and for Maharey to step down.
Excerpts of that open letter were sent to Pharmac for comment just after 8.30am today, along with specific questions about whether Fitt’s job was safe.
Neither Pharmac nor Maharey answered the Herald’s specific questions.
The Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) group also said Fitt should be sacked.
“Patient Voice Aotearoa has been inundated with messages from patients that want to see Fitt gone from leading the agency,” said PVA chair Malcolm Mulholland.
“Of particular concern is the overwhelming feedback from patients that they no longer have any trust or faith in Pharmac, an agency that is responsible for the funding of medicines that keep those same patients alive and well. If patients have no confidence in the organisation that is responsible for the purchasing of medicines they depend upon, then it is clear Fitt’s time as the CE must come to an end.”
“We have seen failure after failure at Pharmac. Much of Pharmac’s shortcomings stem from a vile culture that has permeated the agency. Such flaws were highlighted in the Pharmac review that indicated an arrogant attitude of being untouchable. Sadly, many patients, both alive and dead, have faced the unprofessionalism of Pharmac.”
Smalley told Media Insider last week that Maharey needed to look at the issues through the “eyes of the public they serve”.
She said Pharmac had a dismissive approach to cancer patients.
“Issuing written statements that speak to ‘regret’ or ‘unacceptable behaviour’ will not fix Pharmac’s broken culture. Instead of political protectionism, this situation requires leadership and a willingness to disrupt and reform Pharmac for the benefit of all New Zealanders.”
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.