DEFECTIVE HEALTH SERVICE

Seemingly thirty thousand patients have received free medicines in an illegal way.

Without solving an administrative problem many people will be unable to receive free medicines from the Health Service in the forthcoming months. The National Health Insurance Fund (OEP) promises immediate steps. OEP has checked 140 000 prescriptions from pharmacies recently and they have stated that 30 000 patients received free medicines without being listed in a legal way.

This is partly due to the delays of reports coming in from the self-governments. The problems are to be solved by the introduction of an on-line registration which will be operated in mid-2006 nationwide. The introduction of the system will be problematic for smaller pharmacies and a breakdown of the system may harm the interests of patients who are registered for free medicines.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó