Masters of Pharmacy from Tuzla Canton have been pointing out the problem of unequal position in relation to other colleagues from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for five months. Since the earlier strike was cancelled, the Tuzla pharmacists are ready for a more radical step that leads to the closure of pharmacies for a few days.
For five months, there has been a struggle for pharmacists from Tuzla Canton to increase the price of the prescription fee from the essential list of medicines for which they receive one convertible mark with VAT, unlike their counterparts in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton where this service costs 1.50 BAM, Zenica-Doboj to 1.75 BAM, and in Sarajevo to 1.95 BAM.
“We had a conversation with the Minister of Health of Tuzla Canton and representatives of the Institute of Health Insurance of TC, but they were not determined in order to meet our requirements. In addition to equalizing the price of the prescription service with other cantons in Federation, we are also requesting the introduction of electronic prescriptions,” representative of Tuzla Canton pharmacists Amela Gazibegovic told Klix.ba news portal.
The Health Insurance Institute of TC said earlier that the contracted price of prescription of medicine services from the essential list will not be done this year, and they see the reason for this in the lack of money in their personal budget, because it requires 1,700,000 BAM for this purpose.
“We believe that our demands have not been fulfilled so far due to the turbulent change of government in the canton,” Gazibegovic continued. However, if their demands are not met in the coming period, Tuzla pharmacists are ready to take a more radical step in order to protect the profession, which is to put the key in the locks of pharmacies for a few days. In addition, they point out that they have the option of organizing a general strike as a legal option.
