Due to the increase in essential drug list costs to 75 million KM, healthcare workers' salaries are threatened!

For years, the status of healthcare workers, especially doctors, has been regulated, but they are not satisfied with it, because apart from empty and bombastic announcements about various reforms, nothing significant is happening, reports the Patria news agency.

Because of this, the Main Board of the Union has decided that, if such behavior continues, they will slowly begin preparations for a strike and a fight for their rights. The problem that the current Government of the Sarajevo Canton and Prime Minister Elmedin Konaković announced would be resolved quickly, concerning the essential drug list, has not been resolved, but costs have been further increased, Patria learns.

The essence of it all is that the A essential drug list has been adopted by the federal minister since 2012, whereas previously the Institutes did this, and the Sarajevo Canton is the only one that applies this list at full capacity. The B and C lists of essential drugs are drawn up by cantonal ministers, i.e., the commission appointed by the minister.

The A list has no reimbursements; the B list contains drugs for which a co-payment is made, while the C list is for hospitals.

- The problem is that it follows from all this that the one who decides how much something costs is not the one who pays! Because drugs cannot, for example, cost the same in Livno and Sarajevo. Because in Sarajevo, 500,000 Paracetamol tablets are sold, while in Livno, for example, five. When the Institute was drawing up the essential lists, they cost 50 million KM, and now it costs 75 million KM – says our source.

Incidentally, this problem was warned about by Kenan Crnkić, director of the Health Insurance Institute of the Sarajevo Canton, whom the current Government of the Sarajevo Canton dismissed for reasons known to them, even though the Institute was operating in the black. Precisely for this reason, the Doctors' Union did not even mention the Institute in its statement, but only the management of the Health Centers of the Sarajevo Canton and the Government of the Sarajevo Canton, i.e., the relevant ministry and Minister Emira Tanović-Mikulec, who has not distinguished herself with her work since her appointment.

- The number of insured persons has not increased, and the outflow of these funds is enormous. Now healthcare workers have realized that due to the enormous outflow of funds, they will be denied finances. The current Government said it would tear up that list, but the losses are now even greater – added our source.

As warned, this perverse system will not be sustainable for much longer, given that the essential lists are being increased in line with suspicious agreements between ministers and certain pharmaceutical companies.

- Due to the mismanagement of the institution in the previous period and the indiscriminate and unnecessary hiring, we have come to a situation where we must save the institution and jobs. We are a society with very high drug consumption. The essential list is made by "experts," as if they are not from the field of medicine. Such an essential list only harms the health of the population - they state from this union.

- It is tragic that no one cares about such developments. We have the predispositions for quality healthcare, but we do not have it. Many are satisfied with this situation, because they are getting rich this way. It is a false picture that the patient has all the rights. By obtaining a so-called free drug, the patient is at a loss. This situation only suits those in power. Instead of creating quality, we are creating quantity at the expense of the former - they said from the Union in a statement.