Record healthcare budget, yet patients still have to buy medicines themselves

The European Commission’s Kosovo Report highlights, among other issues, shortcomings in the healthcare sector, including the fact that despite the largest healthcare budget to date, patients are still forced to cover around 40 percent of the cost of medicines on the Essential Medicines List out of their own pockets. The Health and Social Care Agency has not responded to these findings or to questions about measures announced following the Report, which confirmed mismanagement in the procurement of medicines, Dukagjini reports.

The 112-page report states, among other things, that out-of-pocket expenditure borne by patients amounts to around 40 percent. Healthcare expert Saranda Ramaj cited several reasons for shortages of essential medicines.

“Based on what I have seen, at least over the past year, there are several problems. The first is planning, because tenders are often planned and procurement procedures launched only once stocks have been depleted and there are no reserves left. This is then followed by procedural delays—which, incidentally, are within the statutory framework—and these can last two to three months,” Ramaj said, according to Dukagjini.

Several months ago, an internal audit report by the University Clinical Center of Kosovo confirmed mismanagement in the procurement of medicines, but no measures have yet been taken.

“I would expect much better management of this important segment. The fact that measures have still not been taken is highly significant, given that the institution itself—despite numerous denials issued to the media and civil society—established that problems existed and reached the point where it acknowledged responsibility for the shortage of medicines,” Ramaj stressed.

Although Dukagjini requested a response from the University Clinical and Hospital Service of Kosovo regarding measures taken at the clinics where mismanagement had been established, the institution did not respond.