The next story is about the fight for life. Medicines that mean life to oncology patients – are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Lately, they can get to them if they have a few hundred marks, and they need them regularly – for some every month, and for others weekly. The problem of lack of cytostatics is repeated. Those who need medicine do not have much time, and some never see it. Why do patients constantly face a shortage of life-saving medicines?
Two breast cancer surgeries, constant therapies and frequent uncertainty – whether she will be able to receive therapy, Azra Babajić tells BHRT about her experience, which has been going on for ten years.
“When I first had surgery, I had to take hormone therapy every day, which must not be interrupted. There was a time when there was no such therapy either. When it stopped, everything must be stopped, because we were certainly like some kind of collateral damage. Then I took a break for 15 days, it wasn’t much, and it’s that smart medicine as they call it. There are some now, but the ones that are a little stronger, a little harder for you, are gone. Those women are lying in the house and waiting for the mercy and grace of someone get it.”
One of the drugs that is currently unavailable is TAXOL. It is possible to buy it privately, and its price is around 500 marks. If they are lucky, patients can buy the drug in rare pharmacies, otherwise they get it outside BiH.
ENIDA GLUŠAC, president of the “Renaissance” Association
“From our association, it happened that patients went for therapy and were sent back because there was no medicine. They tried to find their way through private means, they ordered medicines themselves in private pharmacies, but these medicines are very expensive. Some of these medicines cost 483 marks each , and are used on a weekly basis.”
The University Clinical Center in Sarajevo has confirmed that they have a shortage of five cytostatics, as a result of which they are temporarily unable to provide continuous therapy to oncology patients.
“The clinical pharmacy of KCUS, based on the requests of clinics that apply oncology drugs, supplies the needs for cytostatics to ZZORFBIH, which, after the public procurement procedure, makes continuous purchases based on signed contracts with suppliers,” said KCUS.
According to the Clinical Center, the procurement and payment of these expensive and rare drugs is the responsibility of the Federal Health Insurance and Reinsurance Fund. The Federal Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance says that they regularly procure and deliver medicines to health institutions. The Institute allows refunding of purchased medicine, with attached medical documentation and confirmation from clinical pharmacies that the health institution did not have the medicine in the Decision on the list of medicines of the Federal Solidarity Fund at that time.
“There is currently an interruption in the supply of cytostatics for drugs that are in the import procedure or are under batch control, which we hope will be resolved in the coming days,” ZZORFBIH said.
“We must not give up, that means we give up on ourselves. We will fight in every possible way, and we will fight now. If something is not done, we will probably take to the streets,” Babajic said.
Those who need the medicine are only interested in having the medicine regularly and in sufficient quantity, because every day without medicine is a day less for them, and not everyone has the money to buy it, so they reimburse the costs, BHRT writes.
