Open fronts in the field of medicines of the General Health System, with Health Insurance Agency to make efforts to solve problems, correct distortions and promote processes for new applications.
In the foreground, the delay in approving requests submitted by doctors for drugs needed by their patients, while next week’s meeting under the Minister of Health, Neophytos Charalambidiswhich will have the exclusive subject of discussion of finding a way to reduce the very high contributions that citizens pay to private pharmacies when filling their prescriptions for specific drugs.
Regarding the delays in the approval of injectables medicines for diabetics and commenting on the complaints of doctors, who, in addition to the long waiting time, also emphasized the implementation of complicated procedures for submitting the relevant requests, the responsible director of the OAU, Athos Tsinondidis, acknowledged, speaking to “F” the problem informing that “solutions are being promoted”.
The delay in processing those requests, he said, “is currently around four to five weeks, but the problem is there, but we’ve gone ahead and identified some issues in the software, some settings that have come into play that normally shouldn’t, and we’re pushing through the necessary changes.” At the same time, he added, “we are also working on other ways to differentiate some procedures that are currently being followed and thus reduce the waiting time for doctors who submit requests.”
For example, he explained, “we’re working on ways to reduce the need for human intervention, such as when doctors request a change in dosage for their patients. In this way, we consider that the waiting time will be greatly reduced».
Under processing, “but there are other solutions and further changes in the procedures to make it easier for both doctors and patients,” he said, noting that over 2,000 applications have been processed in the last 11 months.
Its president was emphatic in his statements to “F”, on the specific subject Cyprus Federation of Patient Associations, Charalambos Papadopoulos who indicated that “certain things should not be called out by the OSAK either at the level of the executive committee, or at the level of the doctors of its scientific committee in order to recognize and promote solutions” (p.s. it is recalled that “F” had publicized the protests of the doctors, recording in a relevant report specific examples of patients who have been waiting for several weeks for the approval of their requests).
“Patients with diabetes cannot wait, they cannot interrupt their treatment. We are talking about tens of thousands of people in Cyprus who are diabetic, several thousand of them need these injectable drugs because they are patients who have no other choice. Discontinuing a treatment leads to dysregulation of diabetes, with all that this entails for the health of the patients.”
Complaints about high contributions are on the rise
One of the biggest open issues recently in the field of medicines of the NHS, is very high contributions (amounts that citizens pay when carrying out their prescriptions in private pharmacies) for specific medicines, which have arisen after the last revision of the price list of medicines by the Ministry of Health.
The problem is greater for the thousands of patients who receive anticoagulant treatment since the contribution they are now asked to pay exceeds €20 every month, just for one drug.
The issue was discussed last month at a meeting held at the OAU, in the presence of pharmaceutical companies and organized patients. After the meeting, the Organization put before the companies a proposal which, among other things, stipulated that the beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Scheme would not pay a contribution higher than €10 for certain categories of drugs (a proposal that OSAK had also submitted).
The proposal of the OAU does not seem to have been accepted by the pharmaceutical companies and the Minister of Health, Neophytos Charalambidis, called a meeting that will take place, as it became known, next week.
However, at a time when solutions are still being sought, the related complaints to the OSAK Patient Observatory are increasing with patients strongly complaining about the amounts they are now required to pay when carrying out their prescriptions. The problem concerns around 10,000 patients, most of whom are low-income pensioners.
Stocks for two months for 27 medicines
Along with all of the above, the process is underway to increase the number of specialized drugs that chronic patients receive from hospital pharmacies and are administered through the process of two-month prescriptions. The prescriptions, that is, through which the patients by their execution secure supplies to cover their needs for two months and not just for one as is the case with normal prescriptions.
As we are informed, until now 27 specialized treatments have been included in this process and it is expected that two more will be included in May.
The aim of the application of the prescriptions with the indication 2ΜΗΝ is to stop the constant coming and going of chronic patients to state pharmacies and thus to reduce the waiting lines that form almost every month in public hospitals.
However, the process of transferring non-prescription drugs that are exceptionally given to specific groups of chronic patients through the General Health System is also underway.
Patients receive the specific preparations (several of which are nutritional supplements and vitamins as they are part of their treatment) from the hospital pharmacies and with the new procedure followed by the OAU, it will be possible to secure them from the neighborhood pharmacies.
Until now, four such preparations have been transferred to private pharmacies, while a total of 41 non-prescription medicines are exceptionally provided through the National Health Service.
