There is still a lack of medicines in the public sector; alert IP

Added to the shortage of medicines in the public sector is an increase in the prices of drugs the federal government pays. The situation leads people to allocate resources to pay for private consultations in clinics attached to pharmacies and buy generic medicines.

According to the Mexican Pharmaceutical Institute, public purchases of medicines were found last May below those made between 2017 and 2020. The average price of medicine purchased by the public sector was 65.43 pesos per piece in 2021, 56.2% more than a year before. For 2022, it fell to 53.93 pesos but is still 28% above the 41.90 pesos of 2020.

The president of the Health Commission of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Patrick Devlyn, assured EL UNIVERSAL that all the changes made in contracting and bidding to buy medicines by the government “have been exacerbating a circumstance that plays against the supply of medicines and to be able to buy them at a better price.” From his point of view, the health issue should not be allowed to become involved in an ideological discussion.

The challenges of medicine shortages and shortages are complicated because, with the IMSS-Wellness program, people without social security will be served, and care must be taken that the “form of financing, which the IMSS has to serve beneficiaries, does not serve to subsidize non-entitlements who are financed with federal contributions.”

He indicated that the federal government must consider the private health system because the offices adjacent to pharmacies serve many more people than those received daily by the public sector through IMSS and ISSSTE.

Faced with the challenge of the IMSS-Wellness program, “the State needs to structure, as it sees fit, the public health subsystems to provide the best care possible, and it has to take into account the private health system, which today is a highly relevant part of the national health system.”

He added that in the private sector, “a job is being done to be accessible, timely and of quality, we all have areas of opportunity to improve, and we have many examples in public and private sectors of how the provision of services and consulting rooms adjacent to pharmacies are no exception.”