The Pharmac board has announced its endorsement of an action plan to improve the organisation's culture following the exposing of unprofessional comments from its senior leadership towards broadcaster Rachel Smalley. 

The Herald and Smalley revealed earlier this month the executive, Sarah Fitt wrote several emails, including regular messages to her communications team about Smalley, who has strongly advocated for more drug funding, including through an organisation she founded, The Medicine Gap.

The emails were released under the Official Information Act.

In the emails, Fitt expressed her delight at the fact Smalley "has a terrible time slot [on Today FM] and not much of a following".

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.

Various patient advocates and groups have called for Fitt to resign over the emails.

Now, during its monthly meeting, the board decided on four immediate actions to implement and another four short-term actions to uphold the Public Service values. 

The actions include engaging an external party to help the senior leadership and board with work underway on the culture of Pharmac. 

Updated inductions for all new Pharmac staff and external advisors will also be provided, now ensuring "a stronger focus on responsibilities as public servants".

Pharmac also promised to improve its engagement with stakeholders to make sure the company was listening to their concerns and responding in an appropriate and timely fashion. 

Board chairman, Steve Maharey said Fitt and the senior leadership were taking the matter very seriously and were addressing the concerns immediately. 

He said Fitt had expressed her regret over the comments.

"The board has accepted her apology and verbal explanation," he said in a statement. 

"It has requested that [Fitt] offer a public apology."

In her public apology, Fitt said, "I would like to apologise for the comments made in several internal emails.  These comments were not in keeping with the Public Service values.

"The Pharmac Board has agreed with my recommendation to implement a series of actions to improve the culture of Pharmac and ensure we do not see a repeat of this.

"As the chief executive, I am ultimately responsible for leading and setting the tone for the organisation.  I did not meet this expectation and deeply regret my actions.

"I am confident that what we have agreed today will lead to a better culture and a better Pharmac."

Shortly after Pharmac issued its press release on Friday, Fitt sent an email to journalist Rachel Smalley which said, "Dear Ms Smalley, subsequent to my apology in the media release today, I wanted to reach out to personally apologise to you.

"I am sorry for my unprofessional comments and also for the unprofessional comments made by some Pharmac staff.

"I hope that we can have a constructive relationship moving forward as I know we both want the same thing - to see more medicines for more New Zealanders."

Maharey also said the board will be provided with regular updates on the implementation of the action plan and will be closely monitoring the progress.

The Herald reported that Smalley was appalled by the board's response and believed it called into question its competency. 

"Is this the best Steve Maharey can do?" she told the Herald. 

"His solution is to agree to spend more taxpayer dollars commissioning an external agency to teach Pharmac how to be nice?"