A draft "Law on amending the Law on reimbursement of medicines, foodstuffs for special nutritional purposes and medical devices" has reached the Parliament. Family medicine specialists are concerned about the provisions on doctors' prescriptions. The provisions were very favorable to patients with chronic diseases who need to take medications on a permanent basis.
Patients with chronic diseases without annual prescriptions
Published July 4, 2023 08:59
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These are stable patients with hypertension, neurological problems and thyroid disease, among others. The doctor could write them an annual prescription. Which meant that once a year, all they had to do was visit the doctor for a prescription renewal. Nearly 80 percent of primary care clinics had such prescriptions. In 2022, patients filled nearly 20 million of them.
- We are talking about disciplined patients with chronic diseases, but stable, controlled and monitored. Such patients, they don't need to come to us more often for prescriptions unless there is something worrisome going on. Why change this? - Wojciech Pacholicki, vice-president of the Federation Zielonogórskie Porozumienie Zielonogórskie, is puzzled.
Meanwhile, a new provision in the law forces patients to visit their primary care physician more often and take the place of other patients who need medical advice. This includes specialists, to whom there are often queues of months anyway. In the new draft, the doctor will be able to write prescriptions for a total of 180 days, but on multiple prescriptions - meaning the patient will get more prescription codes, which will complicate coping, especially for less able-bodied patients, and will certainly cause queues at pharmacies to lengthen as well.
Source: Federation Zielonogórskie Porozumienie Zielonogórskie
