Employees are increasingly leaving the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices, and the problem of lack of workers, which could eventually lead to the loss of the license, is growing.
The union says that they are desperate and they are asking for the admission of employees. The struggle to fill vacancies in the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices has been going on for some time, Klix.ba news portal reports.
The previous workers left those jobs due to retirement, and death, and new ones do not apply to work, although there are already provided budget funds for them.
Therefore, the Trade Union of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices is wondering why the Council of Ministers of BiH, ie the Ministry of Finance and Treasury does not want to approve the employment of much-needed workers.
The president of the union, Ramo Rustemovic, says that the Agency does not even have a laboratory dishwasher, and that only 35 to 40 people work in the control laboratory.
He also clarifies that the normal continuation of the work of the Agency requires the employment of at least 11 people.
If new professionals are not hired urgently for these positions, Rustemovic says they are aware that they will lose the ISO 17025 certificate.
This would mean that no one in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to control medicines, vaccines and check the quality of medicines.
Such a scenario is inadmissible even in normal health times, and in the period of the coronavirus pandemic, it represents a huge damage to the population.
Rustemovic asks the authorities – if the Agency loses its license, who will be to blame for the disruption of the drug market?
Apart from the fact that there are already financial resources in the budget for these 11 necessary pharmaceutical experts, the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices, according to Rustemovic, fills the budget with approximately 12 million BAM annually, so there is no reason not to approve them. On the other hand, pharmacists are not paid enough for their work, which is why the younger ones mostly go abroad.
