Pharmacists protest

Pharmacies across the country stop working for several hours on July 3 because of the upcoming changes in the regulation on reimbursable medicines by the Health Insurance Fund and because of the processing of free prescriptions. How will they affect the work of pharmacists?

More than 80 pharmacies in the coastal city of Burgas, which have contracts with the health fund, closed for an hour from 09:00 to 10:00 in protest. They are dissatisfied with the proposed new regulation, which stipulates that all medicines of a patient should be transferred onto one prescription. Until now, doctors could prescribe up to three medicines per prescription, for which pharmacies received a processing fee. The new ordinance will affect pharmacies' funding, and on the other hand, pharmacists say the technological process for the innovation has not been cleared and will lead to chaos, as it happened with the introduction of e-prescriptions. Outside some of the pharmacies that closed today, staff were handing out treats to waiting customers.

"We are having to close the pharmacy because the changes the Ministry of Health is proposing have the potential to throw our patient service into chaos, as well as putting the funding of the entire pharmacy operation at risk. These changes have not been coordinated with the pharmaceutical union. It is very important for this to happen smoothly," said Vasil Hodzhev, Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union.

"We have prepared some little treats for our patients, it is a small compensation, but most of all we are ready to give attitude every day," said Lyudmila Konstantinova, a pharmacy employee.

"For me as a patient it is important to get the medicines when I come here, I often buy medicines from this pharmacy and if it stops working with the health fund and if the other pharmacies stops working with the health fund, what are we going to do," wonders Konstantin Vassilev, a client.

The Health Insurance Fund sent a statement saying the changes will strengthen financial discipline in the use of public resources and give health-insured patients broader options for complying with prescribed therapy without delay.