Some medications for the treatment of chronic diseases are not available, head of the Pharmaceutical Association Eleni Piera said on Friday.
This concerns medicines for blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and others, she said.
On Thursday, the health minister visited pharmacists in Nicosia and discussed the problems, while at a meeting with pharmacists next week he will focus on various issues which have emerged since the start of Gesy.
During the meeting, the pharmacists will ask the minister about the shortages, the availability of medicines and the software problems, Piera noted.
Another meeting will take place at the Health Insurance Organisation with importers of medicines and the Pharmaceutical Association.
“The meeting will assess the situation and see how the list of medicines can be updated on a daily basis to ensure that drugs which are in short supply are not prescribed, since there are alternative drugs for each category,” Piera said.
She explained that there are corresponding drugs for each disease but the system does not allow pharmacists to change them on their own. Doctors, on the other hand, are unaware of which medicines are not available and prescribe them.
“There has to be a way to inform doctors about what is not available and to make the prescriptions changeable. The important thing is to find a formula that will regulate the issue of deficiencies so as to normalise the availability of drugs.”
One issue that concerns pharmacists is that of their remuneration for the return of medicines and they will instruct their accountants to check if pharmacies are likely to face liquidity problems as a result.
Piera went on to say the upgrade of the software system has helped pharmacists up to a point but there are still a number of problems as the system is time-consuming and not very user-friendly.
“”We have been advised that another upgrade will follow and we expect the situation to be normalised,” she added.
Patients are willing to wait as they have been contacted by their doctors and they still have some medicine left.
Pharmacists are also waiting for protocols regarding expensive drugs, she concluded.
