Budget procurement of medicines by healthcare institutions in Ukraine is carried out at the prices announced by the government, therefore it will be difficult to prosecute heads of clinics for inflating prices, believes Dmytro Aleshko, partner at Legal Alliance Company.
“It is very difficult to prosecute heads of healthcare institutions in this case, as they carry procurement at the declared prices, as stipulated by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 240” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
The lawyer believes that in order to prevent procuring overpriced medicines for the state budget funds, it is necessary to change the approaches to price declaration.
“The practice of regulating the prices of medicines paid for by the state is successfully implemented in a number of European countries,” he said.
At the same time, Dmytro Aleshko believes that the problem can be solved if a central procurement agency is set up “where only those who do not have a conflict of interests can be hired, and they should receive a high salary”.
“Such a procurement agency should be audited once a year by a company from the Big 4. In this case, by signing a long-term framework agreement with the manufacturer, it will be able to get better prices for medicines,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Health is already working on the creation of such an agency.
Volodymyr Groisman, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, was reported to instruct the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to analyse prices at which health institutions procure drugs for state budget funds.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, various healthcare institutions procure drugs at prices that are significantly different. In particular, in some clinics paracetamol, omnopon, aspirin and adrenaline are purchased at prices that are 90% higher than the average price in the country.
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