Newsroom
Patients in Cyprus are calling for an end to the special approval process required for certain medicines, particularly treatments for diabetes and obesity.
The Cyprus Patients Associations Federation, known as OSAK, says patients should be able to receive the medicines they need without lengthy individual applications and approval procedures.
OSAK spokesman Dimitris Lamprianides said the current system can cause unnecessary delays, even when there is no shortage of the medicine itself.
Some medicines are not included in the state health scheme, GESY. In these cases, a doctor or patient must submit a named-patient request, asking for a specific medicine to be approved for a particular individual.
Lamprianides said OSAK wants as many necessary medicines as possible to be included in the GESY system.
“The aim is for people to receive their medicine easily and quickly, without having to go through special procedures,” he said.
The issue mainly affects some medicines used to treat diabetes and obesity. Lamprianides said the delays are caused by the approval process rather than a lack of available supplies.
He added that the Health Insurance Organisation, or HIO, is working to include some of these medicines in the GESY Pharmaceutical Products List. Once this happens, patients may no longer need to submit individual requests.
More than 100,000 people in Cyprus are living with diabetes, according to Lamprianides, making access to diabetes medication an important issue for a large number of patients.
He also criticised the state's approach to preventing diabetes, obesity and heart disease, saying more should have been done to inform the public and prevent these conditions.
OSAK has also received reports of problems with medicine stocks at some hospital pharmacies. Lamprianides said supplies may sometimes be unavailable at individual pharmacies because of poor planning, even when stock is available in the government's central warehouses.
HIO says access to treatment remains a priority
The HIO said it is working to ensure that patients can access the medicines and treatments they need as quickly as possible.
For medicines already included in the GESY Pharmaceutical Products List but requiring prior approval, the HIO said applications are generally processed within two to three weeks.
Requests involving medicines not included in the list are handled differently. The organisation said life-threatening cases are sent immediately to a committee responsible for examining urgent cases.
The HIO also said that no patient approved to receive a medicine through GESY has been forced to stop treatment.
However, delays are currently affecting some people seeking to begin medication for obesity. The HIO said there is a high number of applications and requests are being examined in order of priority.
The organisation is now working to add anti-obesity medicines to the official GESY list. This would remove the need for individual applications and could make the process faster for patients.
The HIO also referred to a recent case in which a pharmaceutical company withdrew several medicines from the Cypriot market, including some that had no direct alternatives. The organisation said it acted with the Directorate of Purchasing and Supply to obtain the medicines from abroad.
Pharmacies report few problems
Meanwhile, pharmacies are not currently experiencing any major medicine shortages, according to Ploutarchos Georgiades, president of the Pancyprian Pharmaceutical Association.
If a prescribed medicine is unavailable, the GESY system can offer a generic alternative. Pharmacists explain the available option to patients, who can then decide whether to use it.
Georgiades said most patients accept generic medicines while waiting for their usual medication to become available. He added that generic drugs now account for most prescriptions.
