Pharmacies in Greece will close on Wednesday as owners protest the fact that social security funds have yet to settle their mounting unpaid drugs bill, while pharmacists are warning that some medicines are already in short supply.
Pharmacists have decided to close their stores for one day and to stop supplying customers with medicine on credit until the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY), the country’s main healthcare provider, settles debts of some 250 million euros for prescriptions issued in March.
The pharmacists claim they are also owed about 250 million euros for medicine they sold on credit in 2011 to customers insured with social security funds that were incorporated into EOPYY earlier this year. In fact, pharmacists claimed on Monday that they have seen an internal EOPYY document that suggests the organization will get a maximum of 784 million euros in funding this year.
The pharmacists point out that the bill for medicine they supply to those insured with EOPYY reaches 250 million euros most months and that the organization will soon not be able to pay its drugs bills.
State spending on medicine was cut by 1.75 billion to 3.8 billion euros but the government wants to bring it below 1 billion euros this year, partly through the use of cheaper generic medicine. Attica Pharmacists Association head Costas Lourantos claimed on Monday that his members alone are owed 74 million euros for drugs sold on credit in January and February.
He also warned that shortages of as many as 163 drugs had been recorded, including medicine for cancer treatment, heart disease and blood pressure.
(source: ANSA)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
