Measures have been taken and it has been announced that if it is necessary to purchase services from the private sector, this will be done, said the Minister of Health, answering a relevant question after a meeting with the Secretary General of AKEL. He also said that a meeting was held last week to take additional measures, saying that they are working to solve the problems, realizing that problems are being caused to the patients since "the program starts at dawn and goes on until late at night".
Mr. Patsalis was answering a question about AKEL's letter to the Auditor General for dialysis clinics and transplant clinics, saying that the answer was sent today and he would not like to mention it publicly before Andros Kyprianou reads it.
Drug pricing
Asked to comment on the reactions regarding the pricing of medicines, the Minister of Health said that they made a study with the help of the London School of Economics on what the pricing policy should be in order to achieve a reduction in the price of medicines in Cyprus. private sector, is one of the most expensive in Europe.
Based on this study, he said, they have made changes in two phases, the first concerning updating. "We achieved an average reduction price for medicines that was over 10 euros of 15%." They decided three months ago for a further reduction of 8,5% and the drugs will be reduced again from June 29, he added, adding that obviously there are reactions mainly from pharmacists and manufacturers and pharmacists.
"We believe that the decision was the right decision to achieve a significant average reduction of 23%. We did not make drastic changes of order, a reduction of 60% that took place in Greece because we would have a lot of problems ". They achieved, he said, the first goal which was the reduction of medicines to serve the citizen during the financial crisis and was done through a model that will have the least possible losses.
Mr. Patsalis said that compensatory measures were given such as the delay of the update, that the reductions in the prices of medicines for those that are already cheap, etc. do not apply. "It would not be possible for us to reduce the price of medicines for the good of the citizen without affecting some of the interests of the importers," he said, adding that he had recently met with them.
Source: KYPE