The shortage is concentrated almost entirely in the products that are dispatched with the control card.
14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2024 — Officials with Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health recognized on Monday that 70% of the basic medicines that Cuban patients need are missing. Of the 651 products that should be sold in pharmacies, only 292 are available, and only intermittently. The shortage is concentrated almost entirely in products that are shipped with a control card and affects the medicines that are made on the Island, which corresponds to 80% of the basic table. “To say that this situation will be resolved in the coming days would be irresponsible,” admitted the Minister of Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda.
“We have faced, and still have, a situation of significant shortages in the (pharmacy) network,” acknowledged María Cristina Lara Bastanzuri, national director of Medicines and Medical Technologies. The causes they cite are the usual ones: the lack of funding to manufacture new drugs, the increase in the price of raw materials in the foreign market, and the cost of importing them to the Island.
“To say that this situation is going to be resolved in the coming days would be irresponsible,” admitted the Minister of Health
In an analysis prior to the session, Deputy Cristina Luna Morales, president of the Health and Sports Committee, presented the results on the operation of community and hospital pharmacies. As she explained at the time, the shortage is a “recurring” issue among local managers, who have argued that there is also no sugar, natural alcohol and other raw materials for the elaboration of natural drugs in the laboratories of each province.
In many cases, the increase in the prices of raw materials causes the generation of products to decrease. In addition, pharmaceutical companies do not have administrative and cargo transport, which also limits their management.
The official also pointed out that the number of patients with control cards continues to rise, “many times, because doctors, in their desperation for the patient to have at least one medication, prescribe what is available, instead of what they really need.”
Morales acknowledged that not infrequently the problem is the distribution and not the availability of the drug, which may be in the warehouses but impossible to “make available in a timely manner, because other institutions that provide transportation for us are affected.”
The illegal sale of medicines has become an increasingly frequent option for Cubans to supply their first aid kits
In this regard, the minister pointed out that the illegal sale of medicines has become an increasingly frequent option for Cubans to supply their first aid kits. It is, for example, the case of a restaurant in Manzanillo, Granma province, which has been converted into the most well stocked pharmacy in the city, 14ymedio found.
Also, not all community pharmacies provide a courier service for the poorest population. It was even reported that pharmacy workers do not even have sanitary gowns, prescription pads and pens. Likewise, the breakage and lack of phones in some cases causes many patients not to have access to medicines.
Finally, she reported that there are outstanding bills to be paid for the purchase of medicines, both from pharmaceutical companies and health institutions.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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