Many essential drugs are missing from state drugs

I took some and some didn't. I have to buy myself at some private drug store”, Amy told Radio Free Europe.

Would it be better if I took it all here, but what do I do?”, the patient briefly expressed himself while holding a letter named for the antibiotic that would require it outside the public health institution.

The essential list of drugs is an official document, containing a selection of medicine and medical products needed to meet the basic health needs for the population.

Products from this list, which includes about 200 types of drugs, are offered free of charge.

But, like Amy, many patients find themselves paying from their pockets for drugs that should be available through the health care system.

This, for the fact that supplies from the essential list to some Kosovo municipalities are brought only 25 to 30 percent.

Local health system leaders point to the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for meeting the essential list.

The Ministry of Health says that they are aware of the situation and that they are working to improve the supply chain, although they claim that 80 percent of the drugs are provided on the basis of documents.

How fulfilled is the essential list?

Team Radio Free Europe visited family medicine centres in several Kosovo municipalities in the second week of October. And the complaint was in all of them, especially for the absence of certain kinds of antibiotics, pain, vitamins, ampulses, and so on.

In Shtime, the pharmacist managing the drug store at the Main Centre of Family Medicine, Naim Dauti, said that throughout this year, much less than half of the drugs and other products from the essential list have been available.

“In the first and second quarter, the supply has not been more than 25%, but in the third quarter, there has been an improvement and now we have supply of up to 39.9% with drugs”, Dauti said.

Similar situation appeared at the Main Centre of Family Medicine in the Year.

The supply percentage is about 25 to 30%”, said Director Vjollca Kadolli.

The fact that we don't have 100 percent supply shows that not all the drugs that they should be, are in the warehouses of the Health Ministry”, she said, without wanting to comment on the reasons for this situation.

There are several family medicine centres in Pristina, and, according to health officials, there are all lack of drugs from the essential list.

Fatos Aliu, from the main Family Medicine Centre in the capital, said that the supply of medicines in the first nine months of the year has averaged 45 percent.

The weightiest situation, according to him, was in the second quarter when <x0furnisation with drugs and other products did not exceed the 34%-” threshold.

Because of this situation, the Pristina municipality, its Directorate for Health, respectively, has been forced to separate tools this year from its budget, to provide little for patients' needs, said director Izet Sadiku.

“We have seen spending half a million euros on drugs, in order to cover those shortages that are from the Health Ministry”, Sadiku told Radio Free Europe.

The additional budgets have also been divided by the Ferizaj municipality, because meeting the essential drug list in the first nine months of the year has been slightly over 30%, while with redeeming material about 63%.

The head of the medicine at the Main Centre of Family Medicine in this municipality, Elina Sylaj Lubishani, said the provision from the Health Ministry is being made every three months, unlike the past years when it has been months for months.

We haven't been supplied with Amoxcilin antibiotics from the last time, Claritromiccin... nor Croxacillin, or the powder for oral digestive”, said Sylaj Lubishani, counting some of the missing drugs.

A little better situation seems to be in Dragash municipality near the Albanian border.

According to authorities at the Main Centre of Family Medicine there, the supply of drugs from the essential list was 60% in the first nine months of this year, while with saving material 83%.

What is the health ministry's response?

Mentor Syla, director of the Pharmacy Division at the Ministry of Health, said that over 80% of the first-level drug supply contracts, for family medicine centres, have been realised, respectively.

“in these primary-level health institutions, supply in the July-September months has begun to improve markedly, because the orders we have made from the contracts we have been binding from June for the next two years have begun to be distributed”, Syla said.

According to him, the delay in drug supply may occasionally occur because the supplier or economic operator is delayed.

“Ampula dikolofen, currently missing. But for other products, we can't say that they're missing because they figure in the system. Family medical centers may have problems with the technical part because we accept requests through the system. The moment they [family medicine centers] don't make demands on the system, we don't have a chance to prove or prove something”, Syla said.

The Ministry of Health told Radio Free Europe, as well as, that last year some 16m euros have been earmarked for drugs and saving materials for the primary health system and specific programmes, while 15m euros have been allocated to this year.

Like many others, the lack of drugs from the essential list is a continuing problem in Kosovo's health, for which Radio Free Europe has reported earlier.

Late on, REL has unofficially learned that responsible authorities share more means for more expensive medicines, for treating diseases like cancer, while those on the essential list are left behind.

Furthermore, drugs that citizens owe to buy do not have unified prices in Kosovo's drugs.

This is an additional burden for them, taking into account that the average salary in the country is 520 euros, while pensions range from 120 to 318 euros. / REL/