On\u00a0the 30th of\u00a0December 2013, representatives of\u00a0patient and public organizations sent an\u00a0open letter to\u00a0the Minister of\u00a0Health Mrs. Bohatyryova demanding the inclusion of\u00a0members of\u00a0the civil society in\u00a0the tender committees of\u00a0the Ministry to\u00a0assure fair and transparent tenders.<\/p>\n
As\u00a0it\u00a0became known, none of\u00a0the representatives of\u00a0civil society organizations and patients concerned with deadly diseases, was not included in\u00a0the forecast committees of\u00a0the Ministry of\u00a0Health. De\u00a0facto it\u00a0cuts short the access of\u00a0patients and civil society to\u00a0the tenders for the procurement of\u00a0drugs for the above-mentioned patients.<\/p>\n
\u2018That\u2019s nonsense, which shows that in\u00a02014 the Ministry of\u00a0Health wants to\u00a0hold tenders using corruption schemes, that could only be\u00a0prevented by\u00a0public supervision,\u00a0\u2014 <\/em>stated Dmytro Sherembey, the Chairman of\u00a0the patient\u2019 organization UCAB<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Engaging the patients in\u00a0the tender process is\u00a0the only way to\u00a0prevent corruption and fraud in\u00a0the procurement of\u00a0drugs. A\u00a0striking example of\u00a0this is\u00a0our recent publication of\u00a0the information that this year the Ministry of\u00a0Health overpaid Euro\u00a01,2 million just on\u00a0the procurement of\u00a0drugs for HIV-infected, while this money could have additionally covered the treatment of\u00a05000 Ukrainians\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n A\u00a0similar opinion was expressed by\u00a0representatives of\u00a0the children\u2019s hospital \u2018Okhmatdyt\u2019. Thus, Hanna Hopko, the Acting Chairman of\u00a0the Board of\u00a0Trustees of \u2018Okhmatdet\u2019 hospital says:<\/strong> \u2018It is\u00a0clear that the Ministry of\u00a0Health is\u00a0afraid of\u00a0the civil society that counteracts corruption so\u00a0that the sick children could get them on\u00a0time. The Board of\u00a0Trustees, along with volunteers and project \u2018Tabletochki\u2019 (\u2018The Pills\u2019), acts in\u00a0place of\u00a0the State for years, providing drugs for seriously ill children with cancer and hematologic diseases. In\u00a0addition, apart from independent search of\u00a0resources, we\u00a0also need to\u00a0control over the procurement of\u00a0quality medicines for the state budget, because last year the efforts of\u00a0the Board of\u00a0Trustees resulted in\u00a02.5 times increase in\u00a0funding from the state budget on\u00a0medicines from UAH 90\u00a0to\u00a0UAH 216\u00a0million, and now need a\u00a0strict control over their spending,\u2019<\/em> \u2014 adds Mrs. Hopko<\/strong>.<\/p>\n We\u00a0would like to\u00a0note that the public control over tendering is\u00a0the most effective mechanism to\u00a0conduct fair and transparent tenders. After all, patients do\u00a0not allow the Ministry of\u00a0Health to\u00a0procure substandard or\u00a0unnecessary drugs, as\u00a0they are the experts in\u00a0the field. A\u00a0striking example is\u00a0this year scandal<\/a> around the procurement of\u00a0drugs for children with cystic fibrosis. Due to\u00a0the pressure of\u00a0patients and the civil society the little patients received<\/a> quality treatment at\u00a0public expense.<\/p>\n \u2018Worldwide, the tender processes are conducted transparently and fairly,\u00a0\u2014 <\/em>says Vitaly Shabunin, the Chairman of\u00a0the Anti-Corruption Action Center NGO.<\/strong> \u2014\u00a0In\u00a0Ukraine, however, the price of\u00a0drugs procured at\u00a0public expense, sometimes is\u00a010\u00a0to\u00a020\u00a0times overstated. The only way to\u00a0control and prevent such corruption is\u00a0the presence of\u00a0civil society at\u00a0the state tenders at\u00a0the initial stage, as\u00a0part of\u00a0the forecast committees that define a\u00a0list of\u00a0medications and dosages, and later in\u00a0the tender committees that determine the procurement prices. If\u00a0the society sees only the results of\u00a0the tenders, it\u00a0is\u00a0often impossible for them to\u00a0influence or\u00a0to\u00a0cancel such tenders. And if\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0possible, the main victims of\u00a0such circumstances are patients, because in\u00a0the case of\u00a0re-tenders they do\u00a0not get their treatment on\u00a0time\u2019<\/em>, \u2014 he\u00a0adds.<\/p>\n Patients and civil society activists appeal to\u00a0Madame Minister in\u00a0their letter to\u00a0include them urgently in\u00a0all tender and forecast committees they applied\u00a0to. It\u00a0should be\u00a0noted that the appeal was signed by\u00a010\u00a0organizations, most of\u00a0which protect the rights of\u00a0patients with deadly diseases where treatment interruption for even one day can be\u00a0fatal for the patient.<\/p>\n Additional Information:<\/strong> On\u00a0the 30th of\u00a0December 2013, representatives of\u00a0patient and public organizations sent an\u00a0open letter to\u00a0the Minister of\u00a0Health Mrs. Bohatyryova demanding the inclusion of\u00a0members of\u00a0the civil society in\u00a0the tender committees of\u00a0the Ministry to\u00a0assure fair and transparent tenders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11694,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11683\/revisions\/11694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patients.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMinistry of\u00a0Health budget for 2013\u00a0is UAH 9\u00a0billion. The draft budget for 2014 envisages almost UAH 10\u00a0billion on\u00a0healthcare.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"