The Andalusian Government of the PP and Ciudadanos has declared this Monday the controversial auction of drugs that the former PSOE executive implemented in 2012 closed .
Andalusia was the only community in the country with this system of purchasing medicines through auctions in which the laboratories competed with each other in an economic bid , in such a way that whoever won it was left with the exclusive supply.
The end of the drug auction comes two years late on the initial promise made by the Andalusian Government, chaired by Juanma Moreno . In fact, it was one of the measures that the Junta intended to implement in the first hundred days of government in Andalusia.
However, the Andalusian Administration has respected the auctions agreed by the previous government chaired by the socialist Susana Díaz and has waited for the last one to conclude, which ended on December 22.
Juanma Moreno has met this Monday at the San Telmo Palace in Seville, with the medicine sector and has announced the end of the auction of medicines, a “social achievement” for Andalusians, as highlighted. “We said that we would do it if we reached the Government of Andalusia and we have kept our word,” he said.
For Moreno, the auction system entailed an “interference” in the freedom of prescription of doctors and placed patients and doctors in a situation of “inequality” with respect to the rest of Spaniards from other communities, where these “restrictions” do not exist. .
“Today is an important day, because a disguised cut in Andalusian health for eight years has ended . With this new model, normality returns,” he added.
With the new model that the Board is going to implement, shortages in pharmacies will be avoided , something that was very common with drug auctions. In addition, it improves patient adherence to treatment , by not having to change medications frequently, and increases competition between laboratories, promoting the pharmaceutical industry in Andalusia and Spanish production, Moreno added.
The Andalusian drug auction provoked an appeal by the Government of Mariano Rajoy before the Constitutional Court , which finally agreed with the Board. However, a report by the Ombudsman warned in 2016 that the system broke the principle of equality between citizens of different autonomous communities in access to health benefits, given that Andalusians could not access medicines that were available for the rest of the population.
The previous Andalusian governments, the PSOE, defended this model due to the significant savings it represented for the public coffers. In 2018, the Ministry of Health affirmed that the auction of medicines had generated a saving of about 540 million euros in the purchase of medicines in Andalusia.
The Andalusian Council of Pharmaceutical Associations (CACOF) has received with satisfaction the announcement of the definitive revocation of the auction system. “This is a step forward, in favor of the rights of patients, territorial equity and the autonomy of the pharmaceutical professional practice”, said the president of CACOF, Antonio Mingorance .
For Mingorance, it is a “correct and necessary” measure, since “it does justice to the Andalusian pharmacy and its patients, making them equal in rights to those of the rest of Spain, and will bring notable benefits related to better adherence to treatments and greater guarantee of supply “.
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Representing the eight schools of pharmacists in Andalusia and their almost four thousand pharmacies, the Andalusian Council has offered to the Andalusian administration to collaborate with the measures that serve to reinforce the quality and sustainability of health care in Andalusia through a more efficient use of the capillarity of the pharmaceutical network and the qualification of its professionals.
“We are convinced that there are much more effective formulas than auctions to face the challenges our healthcare system faces, challenges such as improving adherence and the control of chronic patients to which pharmacists want and can contribute more intensely , collaborating in a more integrated way with the rest of the healthcare levels of the healthcare system “, explained Mingorance.
