Not a health benefit, not a pharmaceutical service, and the activity will be billed by the National Health Fund starting May 1. Reading the report on the public consultation of the draft regulation on the pilot program, under which women are to gain access to emergency contraception without the need for a prescription from a doctor, makes it clear that everyone is wrong, and the Ministry of Health is right.
Feature
Małgorzata Solecka
Action. And all is clear
Published April 30, 2024 09:06
Of course, in the message of the ministry itself. Of the hundreds or so comments submitted by legal entities (ranging from the Ombudsman to the pharmacists' self-government to organizations of employers and health care workers), the majority concerned an attempt to clarify what the fact of a pharmacist issuing a prescription and dispensing the so-called "morning-after pill" is supposed to be. Because recognizing this fact as a health service would give rise to certain legal consequences, as would recognizing it as a pharmaceutical service (which was pushed by the Health Ministry itself, just go back in your memory or look on Google for coverage of the April 3 conference).
You can't qualify something that the drafters don't want to qualify," the ministry responds (it's hard to resist the meme), taking the debate on the quality of legislation to a completely different level. Not necessarily the level on which it should operate, but facts are hard to argue with. Thus, the pharmacist will perform not a benefit, not a service, but the activities proposed in the regulation. And the NHF will pay for these activities.
The Ministry ignored the Ombudsman's crushing opinion for the draft in its entirety, and ignored 90 percent of the comments submitted by other legal entities - it remains to wait. The implementation of this regulation and the real reach of the pilot will be the best indication of what evaluation the regulation signed on April 29 deserves, and whether it solves the problem of poor accessibility to emergency contraception for (especially underage but legally able to have sex) women, or whether it brings with it further problems that the Ministry of Health (as those in power are not only in the habit of doing at the moment) will heroically begin to solve.
The status as of today: the regulation enters into force, the pilot program starts on May 1, but since pharmacies (willing) must sign contracts first, women will feel the change at the earliest, probably, in a dozen days or so (assuming the signing of contracts goes smoothly, that is, not like the contracts for flu vaccinations in the fall of 2023).
