The Government is continuing to come under fire for its decision not to fund 13 specific cancer drugs in its first Budget, despite pledging to do so during last year's election campaign.
The Finance Minister is promising an update "soon" but one cancer sufferer told Newshub that "soon" is not good enough.
Stage 4 lung cancer sufferer Theresa Zame is - in fact - furious.
"Osimertinib was the first medication on their list that they promised to fund and that's the medication that I desperately need," she told Newshub.
She even got a personal promise from National MP Matt Doocey when she met him for lunch last year. Doocey is now an Associate Minister of Health.
"He told me that they were going to promise to have the medications funded - the 13 medications from the cancer gap - if they were elected into Government."
The promise is even in black and white in the National Party's cancer election policy. That clearly states funding was meant to start this year.
Zame said "it is a completely broken promise".
Newshub put that to the Finance Minister on Tuesday - but she denied it was a broken promise "because we're going to deliver on those drugs".
Zame disagrees.
"To promise something like that - for so many desperate and vulnerable people - and to just not keep their promise is just shameful. It was quite reckless of them to make a promise like that."
Nicola Willis said the issue was twofold - one was a cash concern.
"The additional money that we had to put into Pharmac was needed just to stand still. In order to keep essential medicines funded we had to put in hundreds of millions of dollars more than we thought we would have to prior to the election."
The other issue was how to get around Aotearoa's independent drug-buying agency Pharmac.
"There's some complexity to both how those medicines are approved, how they are procured and the order in which that happens."
But cancer specialist Dr George Laking told AM this morning National should have anticipated these complexities.
"It's not as if they didn't have time to get this ready. They had the whole election campaign to figure it out, cost it out, it's not as if they haven't been able to put through some parts of their policy which obviously seem to be more important to them in the end."
Willis has refused to give desperate Kiwis an update of exactly when they'll hear what is funded and when - just that there'll be an update this year.
"I can give them certainty that we will be making that announcement shortly."
Zame said in response: "What is that answer? What is that timeframe? Will it just be another broken promise?"
Meanwhile the Prime Minister has asked Kiwis for their understanding.
"I get it, I really understand it and I really understand people's frustration about it. But if you can just give us a little bit of time," Christopher Luxon said.
But Zame said people don't have a lot of time on their side when they're diagnosed with cancer.
Amelia Wade analysis:
The Government is coming under major pressure on this - Newshub has been flooded with dozens of emails while 15 cancer organisations today to ministers urging them to make good on their promise urgently.
A former health minister has told us it was a total mistake for National to promise to fund specific drugs in the first place. They cannot see how the Government can fund the 13 drugs outside of Pharmac without severely disrupting the whole system because if you've shown your hand and promised exact drugs, companies can milk it and the Government can't get a good deal.
What's more, experts say the 13 drugs on the list are already out of date and half the drugs haven't even been approved - meaning these drugs would skip the queue ahead of other lifesaving drugs.
National knew - or should have known - how vexed this issue is. In 2008 they came into Government on the promise to fund Herceptin and it overrode Pharmac to do so - but later on, when it came under pressure to fund Keytruda, the then-Health Minister admitted it had been a mistake to override Pharmac.
Behind the scenes, there is likely also some discomfort from coalition partners. ACT specifically campaigned on ending politically motivated funding announcements and would likely prefer more money and access to the best cancer treatments rather than very specific ones.
