Provide access
The Ministry itself took the initiative to give the Ministry of Health the right to compile the list. As stated in the draft resolution, a new listing procedure is necessary to “ensure access of the country’s population to highly effective medicines and medical devices of assured quality and at affordable prices”.
As explained to the ministry, the state policy is to provide citizens with drugs, mainly from the list, on the basis of which all state drug programs in Kyrgyzstan are created, as well as public procurement. “It is important to ensure the quality formation of EDL&MI. The main criteria for including drugs and medical devices in the list should be safety, proven clinical efficacy, affordability. At the same time , it is necessary to take into account the epidemiological situation in the country and health priorities,” noted the Ministry of Health.
One of the reasons for transferring the right to form EDL&MI to the ministry was the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic, adopted in March 2023. The state bodies of the country delegated some of the powers of the government. The Ministry of Health had the opportunity to approve documents such as national lists of essential drugs and medical devices, potent drugs to be registered in health organizations, the form of a compulsory medical insurance policy in the republic, etc.
Incomplete medications
The current version of PZHVLSMI was approved in 2018 by the government of the Kyrgyz Republic. The corresponding resolution was signed by the Chief of Cabinet. The list includes approximately 500 drugs and medical devices. The list, as Bermet Baryktabasova, an expert in evidence-based medicine, told an RG correspondent, “does not contain unproven and expired drugs, it has been completely cleaned of dummies and irrational drugs, and has been replenished along with painkillers and antitumor drugs.”
According to the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund of Kyrgyzstan, the drugs included in the EDL&MI must be provided in full to all hospitalized patients. Not so long ago, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Sadyr Japarov, unexpectedly visited several public hospitals in Bishkek – the national centers of oncology and hematology, maternal and child health and phthisiology – and spoke with patients. After that, the head of state criticized the leadership of the Ministry of Health for the lack of certain drugs in medical institutions and instructed to ensure that patients are not charged for drugs.
- If the patients cannot receive the prescribed drugs, then what state are we in?! – Sadyr Japarov was indignant.
The main thing is not corruption
The 2018 list replaced a similar document from 2012.
What will the new list be? The Ministry of Health promises to create it on the basis of “principles of equity, practical importance, availability of drugs for the health system and the population of the country, publicity”. The department will create an 11-person task force, which will include ministry employees, representatives of medical and pharmaceutical associations and civil organizations.
According to independent experts, the main thing in this scheme is to avoid manifestations of corruption. “In principle, it does not matter who will approve the new list of essential medicines and medical devices – the Ministry of Health in particular or the government as a whole. The Ministry of Health played a role in the formation of the previous lists and will continue to Officials must create conditions for all processes in this area to be open. After all, we are talking about tenders, budget funds, “said Yelena Bayalinova, media expert on health issues in Kyrgyzstan, to the correspondent of RG.
Besides
According to the decree of the President of Kyrgyzstan, the main tasks of the state include the development of the health system, the improvement of the quality of life and the health of the population. In this respect, the Head of State recommended to the government to constitute a strategic stock of drugs necessary to ensure the health of the population; set up a system of regulation and electronic management of the circulation of medicines, medical devices and create a system of regulation of the prices of these; create favorable conditions for the opening of pharmaceutical factories for the production of drugs.
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