Open fronts in the field of medicines of the General Health System, with the Health Insurance Organization making efforts to solve problems, correct distortions and promote procedures for new applications.
In the foreground, the delay in the approval of requests submitted by doctors for preparations needed by their patients, while high on the priorities is next week's meeting under the Minister of Health, Neophytos Charalambidis, which will have as its sole object of discussion the finding of a way to reduce the very high contributions paid by citizens to private pharmacies by executing their prescriptions for specific drugs.
Regarding the delays in the approval of injectable drugs 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 the submission of the relevant requests, the competent director of the HIO, Athos Tsinontidis, acknowledged, speaking to "F", informing that "solutions are being promoted".
The delay in the examination of these requests, he said, "is currently around four to five weeks, but the problem exists but we have moved on and we have identified some issues in the software, some regulations that have been put into operation and normally should not and we are promoting the necessary changes." At the same time, he added, "we are working on other ways to differentiate some procedures that are currently followed and thus reduce the waiting time for doctors who submit requests."
For example, he explained, "we are working on ways to reduce the need for human intervention, such as in cases where doctors' request is for a dosage change for their patients. In this way, we believe that the waiting time will be greatly reduced."
However, "other solutions and further changes to the procedures are being worked out, in order to facilitate both doctors and patients," he said, noting that in the last 11 months, more than 2.000 applications have been examined.
The president of the Cyprus Federation of Patients' Associations, Charalambos Papadopoulos, was intense in his statements to "F", on this issue, who indicated that "some things should not be shouted by 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" (it is recalled that "F" had made public 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 stop 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. Stopping a treatment leads to deregulation of diabetes, with all that this entails for the health of patients."
Complaints about high contributions are on the rise
One of the biggest open issues lately in the field of GHS medicines is very high contributions (amounts paid by citizens when executing their prescriptions in private pharmacies) for specific medicines, which have emerged after the last revision of the price list of medicines by the Ministry of Health.
The problem is bigger for the thousands of patients who receive anticoagulant treatment since the contribution they are now required to pay exceeds €20 every month, just for one drug.
The issue was discussed last month at a meeting held at the HIO, in the presence of pharmaceutical companies and organized patients. After the meeting, the Organization put before the companies a proposal which, among other things, provided that the beneficiaries of the GHS will not pay a contribution of more than €10 for specific categories of medicines (a proposal that had also been submitted by OSAK).
The proposal of the HIO does not seem to have been accepted by the pharmaceutical companies and the Minister of Health, Neophytos Charalambidis, convened a meeting that will take place, as it became known next week.
However, at a time when solutions are still being sought, the relevant complaints at the OSAK Patient Observatory are increasing with patients complaining strongly about the amounts they are now required to pay when executing 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 also 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. Prescriptions, that is, through which patients with their execution secure stocks to meet their needs for two months and not just for one as is the case with regular prescriptions.
As we are informed, so far 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 implementation of the prescriptions marked 2DO is to stop the constant coming and going of chronic patients in state pharmacies and thus to reduce the waiting queues that form almost every month in public hospitals.
However, the process of transferring over-the-counter medicines that are exceptionally administered to specific groups of chronic patients through the General Health System is also underway.
Patients receive these preparations (several of which are dietary supplements and vitamins as they are part of their treatment) from hospital pharmacies and with the new procedure followed by the HIO, it will be possible to obtain them from neighbourhood pharmacies.
So far, four such preparations have been transferred to private pharmacies, while a total of 41 non-prescription drugs are exceptionally administered through the GHS.
