As a
result of the ineffectiveness of free medicines provided by the state, patients
are forced to obtain a significant part of the medicines on their own during
their hospital or ambulatory (outpatient) care.
Complaints
from socially vulnerable people and their families helped to discover cases when
their own doctors advise against using free medicines provided by the state because
of their ineffectiveness.
The
following situation is also quite problematic: the state organizes a tender for
free medicines and the winner becomes the participant who offers the lowest
price for the medicine. As a result, the cheapest one is offered to the patient,
which in its turn results in poor quality or ineffectiveness of that medicine. That
is, the State provides its people with the cheapest medicines in such a case
when its quality is questioned not only by the patient using it, or by the person
who sells it but also by the doctor. Moreover, there are complaints of the health
of the patients deteriorating instead.
As a
result, the state fails to fulfill its obligations or does it insufficiently.
We
have recorded cases of complaints when people have been suggested the medicine
of a specific pharmaceutical company, considering the fact that the free
medicines are ineffective.
In this case, the main problem is that the
hospital is no longer obliged to provide the patient with better quality
medicine for the treatment. As a result, there are cases when such institutions
illegally collect payments from the patient, who is thus forced to look for
expensive or inaccessible medicine, including unregistered drugs.
There
are also cases when patients are directed to find other, usually illegal, ways
of obtaining drugs, often simply in the hope of making profit from the sale; at
least such a belief arises in people.
There
are other serious problems as well, such as the patient not being provided with
the free medicine not because it is not on the list, but because of the delay
or cancellation of the announced tender.
One
of the main reasons for not being able to get medicine is that the patient is
not aware of their right to receive the medicine or its specific type. In all the
recorded cases, people were notified after contacting the Defender by getting
assistance from the Office or by making an alarming-call. 2021 complaints serve
as an evidence that the same practice continues this year.
All the
citizens who applied to the Defender this year in need of various medicines but
did not have the opportunity to buy them due to their financial situation, were
referred by the Office of the Human Rights Defender to the Ministry of Health of
Armenia or their regional polyclinic.
However,
the feedback from citizens has shown that the necessary medicine was rarely
available. The alarming-calls demonstrated that most people were rejected on
the basis that the medicine not available.
In
this case, the problem is that only the medical institution has access to the
availability or distribution of different types of medicine obtained through humanitarian
aid, therefore, people turn to the Office of the Defender to get information
about the availability of the medicine from the Ministry of Health or
polyclinics.
All
the mentioned cases are based on the complaints which were addressed to the
Human Rights Defender, and the results of the investigations.
For
further details, please review the annual report:
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