For Close Medicine, the MSP has paid more than $340,000 to pharmacies; in April the plan would be fully implemented

Some 100 medications out of around 300 have been the most prescribed within the Medicina Cerca plan in 16 hospitals.

The government project covers only the area of ​​Outpatient Consultation, which has a high rotation to cover treatment of chronic patients, who require continuous medication.

The project began to be implemented, gradually, on July 15, 2022, and must be applied in the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), Armed Forces Social Security Institute (Issfa) and the Social Security Institute of the National Police (Isspol), for integrating the public health network.

It consists of the delivery of drugs through private pharmacies through an electronic prescription.

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The Minister of Health, José Ruales, has indicated that when the patient goes to the External Consultation they can give him some medicines from the hospital; and those that do not have, to guarantee that he does not have to buy out of pocket or return to be attended, they are delivered with an electronic prescription and they are withdrawn.

Georlene Cajamarca, manager of the outsourcing mechanisms for pharmacies of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), explained that the project is carried out in three phases.

The first and second phase with 16 hospitals, while the third, which was published in November 2022, covers some 90 establishments, including hospitals and health centers.

This last stage is in a process of evaluating the georeferencing of pharmacies. In the middle of this month, the requests for interest from these companies would enter in order to sign adhesion agreements.

At the moment, there are 6 pharmacy chains that concentrate 295 stores where medicines prescribed by doctors from the 16 hospitals are withdrawn.

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“It is a process that takes this issue of being able to guarantee supply from the pharmaceutical chain (…) they (pharmacies) also depend on other suppliers,” said the official.

In April, the Medicina Cerca plan would be fully implemented.

In tours made by this newspaper in Quito and Guayaquil, patients have complained because they have not been able to pick up drugs in some places or because there are none in public hospitals, they are prescribed, but they do not have enough money to buy them.

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The official preferred not to make an evaluation of how the project is going at the moment. That, she explained, can be done in a couple of months, as she argued that it is underway.

When asking Cajamarca about the remaining 200 medications, he replied that it may depend on the need of the health facility.

No problems have been detected in the application of the interconnection system between hospitals and pharmacies, he said. But on January 23, some users were informed that “there was no system” for this plan in one of the private pharmacies with an agreement with the Abel Gilbert Pontón hospital, in the suburb of Guayaquil.

So far in the outsourcing project, 171,346 prescriptions have been prescribed, 67,525 have been dispatched and $340,776.45 has been paid to pharmacies. (YO)