Agreement levels across a range of statements related to consultation, collaboration and feedback processes highlight marked variation across the range of focus areas tested. The strongest outcome across this question set is in relation to agreement that I am able to provide feedback to the TGA and that TGA consultation is valuable, where 74% and 73% of respondents respectively Agree or Strongly agree (Table 9). Disagreement on these measures is also generally low. Despite the strong outcome in relation to the ability to provide feedback, this commonly does not appear to translate into a belief that the TGA will listen to the feedback provided, with only 51% Nett agreement on this statement and 16% Nett disagreement. Similarly, a relatively low 55% of respondents highlight that the TGA is collaborative (Nett disagreement 17%).

For the remaining measures, there is 62% Nett agreement that the TGA consults with me on relevant issues and 58% Nett agreement that the TGA provides opportunities to input into key decisions that impact me.

While the overall results here show room for improvement, there is evidence of a continued positive trend across these measures when comparing to previous years surveys. As evident in Figure 21, across each of the measures tracked there is a strong and consistent trend between 2016 and 2018 toward higher levels of Nett agreement. The overall trends show rises in Nett agreement of close to or above 10% across each of the measures. This positive trend and the consistency of the trend across this question set demonstrate a substantial and ongoing improvement.

Figure 21 in tabular format

Opportunities to continue to build on the improvements observed are evident in relation to listening to feedback, being proactively collaborative and ensuring transparent and easily accessed opportunities for input are made available.

Within the broad stakeholder categories there is a tendency for higher agreement levels to be observed among Government and Medical products industry stakeholders (Figure 22). In contrast, Health professionals, Academics and (to a lesser extent) Retailers all show trends toward lower Nett agreement on these measures.

Figures 22-24 show Nett agreement levels across each question amongst the broad stakeholder categories as well as Health professional and Medical products industry sub-groups. In particular, it is notable that there is wide variation in agreement levels across the health professional groupings.

Med prod ind: N=1,313-1,368; Health pro: N=179-193; Retailer: N=61-66; Gov: N=57-60; Academic: N=50-56; Media: N=2; Other: N=246-264.

Figure 22 in tabular format

Pharmacist: N=30-32; Med prac: N=38-40; Nurse: N=14-19; Comp health: N=37-39; Dental: N=7-8; Other: N=51-58.

Figure 23 in tabular format

Sponsor: N=824-852; Manufacturer: N=341-365; Reg Affairs Con: N=92-98; Ind Assoc Rep: N=7-8; Other: N=43-47.

Figure 24 in tabular format