Manufacturers of medicines and legal entities that carry out wholesale trade in medicines are obliged to always have at their disposal determined quantities from the list of essential medicines, which, in addition to medicines used/dispensed in health institutions, also those for oncology patients, and vaccines for population immunization, the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Bosnia and Herzegovina told Srna news agency.
The Agency reminds that the Council of Ministers recently, almost 18 years after the entry into force of the Law on Medicines and Medical Devices, determined the List of Essential Medicines.
“The list was created as a result of the joint cooperation and understanding of the representatives of the ministries responsible for health affairs of the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, the Department of Health of the Brčko District, and the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH, with the wholehearted efforts of the members of the Commission for Medicines who made the proposal,” the Agency pointed out.
The list of essential medicines was adopted with the aim of providing basic health care for the population and contains the minimum number of medicines that are prescribed and issued at the expense of compulsory health insurance funds, as well as the minimum number of medicines in hospital health care.
“The list represents the smallest common content, that is, the minimum number of medicines that are available to the citizens of BiH in the health care system”, the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH emphasizes, explaining that health insurance funds are obliged to provide the insured with medicines from the essential list.
The essential list, they add, does not restrict the funds from providing their health insurers with a wider list of medicines if they have the financial and other necessary means.
“These are the so-called fund lists of medicines or positive lists of medicines, that is, lists of medicines that are provided/financed by the appropriate health insurance fund to the health insured, as part of the health insurance package”, the Agency specified.
The list of essential medicines consists of three parts: the list of medicines used/dispensed in health institutions, the list of medicines used in health institutions dealing with the treatment of oncology/hematological patients, and the list of vaccines used in health institutions dealing with population immunization.
Vaccines include immunoglobulins and immunosera that are used as therapy to strengthen the immune system in certain diseases.
According to the essential list, rabies vaccine and more vaccines for children’s immunization should be available to the population at all times, including vaccines to protect children against invasive infections such as meningitis and sepsis, as well as vaccines against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus, and poliomyelitis.
According to the essential list, manufacturers of medicines and legal entities that carry out wholesale trade in medicines are obliged to always have available antiserum against snakebite, which in previous years was often not enough in health institutions.
