A ship was delayed in arriving in Cyprus and patients with ileostomy were faced with the shortage of the special consumables they need every day. At the same time, pharmaceutical preparations were in short supply or their stocks in Cyprus were very few, with the result that patients were suffering or even at risk until new quantities became available.
"Unfortunately," the secretary of the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations, Charalambos Papadopoulos, told "F", "almost every month cases of patients arrive at OSAK who are not served as they should and do not provide the consumables they need to meet their needs and certainly, almost every week we are informed about shortages of specific medicines."
As a Federation, he added, "we know that these shortages, whether of consumables or medicines, in most cases are not due to the inaction of the Health Insurance Organization or the Ministry of Health. Several times we are informed that importing companies find it difficult to import new quantities into Cyprus." But this, he said, "does not mean that everything is rosy for the patients, because the competent Services are not responsible.
The consequences are borne by the patients alone and in our opinion a way must be found so that there are always some safety reserves in Cyprus for emergencies."
For example, he added, "we had a case in which for about ten days, a consumable absolutely necessary to manage the health condition of patients with ileostomy was not available.
Ileostomy bags are not a consumable that can just wait until the next order arrives. They are used to collect the intestinal contents from people who have undergone a surgically ileostomy and must be replaced regularly to ensure their hygiene, skin protection and daily functionality."
In this particular case, according to the data collected by OSAK, the problem was attributed to the delay in the arrival of a ship carrying the consumables to Cyprus. "We can't tell patients with ileostomy to go ten days without the consumables they need."
The case of ileostomy bags is not the only one, however. "We have reports of other consumables for various reasons. They may concern unsuitability of consumables, for example size or non-adaptation to the needs of a patient and certainly shortages or delays in delivery."
Furthermore, "reports of shortages of medicines reach us very often. For example, relatively recently we had reports of a problem in the availability of an eye drug, but also of drug therapy used in the treatment of ulcerative colitis." In this particular case, no official shortage of the drug had been declared, but there were limited stocks, due to delays in production and supply to the European market in general.
"For people taking long-term medication, uncertainty about the next supply creates additional concern, particularly when their treatment must follow a specific schedule."
"There must be a mechanism"
The secretary of OSAK indicated that "it would be good for all competent bodies to proceed with the setting up of a mechanism that will take care of the storage of stocks for emergencies". "We know that when companies inform in time about an upcoming shortage, the HIO and the Ministry of Health are activated and they secure stocks from other sources.
In many cases, however, and we have seen this several times, information about the upcoming shortage is delayed, resulting in a gap in patient service. It is precisely this gap that must be found a way to fill it. In the cases we refer to, stocks have been restored. However, the temporary shortage creates small or large or very big problems for patients."
