The Ministry of Health encourages self-medication: Komarovsky explained why discounts on medicines will not help Ukrainians

The lists of medications published by the Ministry of Health, for which prices have been reduced since March 1, were formed without considering real medical needs and promote self-medication rather than protecting the health of Ukrainians. This was stated in an exclusive comment to UNN by pediatrician Yevhen Komarovskyi.

If this surprised you, then I, to be honest, have a skeptical smile. This is generally at the level of a joke.

According to him, the most concerning issue is not only the principle of forming the list itself but also that the state decided to lower prices on medications that doctors hardly use in modern medicine, such as levomycetin, corvalol, and aspirin in large doses.

I was, for example, struck by the fact that levomycetin is on this list. What is treated with levomycetin in the 21st century? I am trying to understand. Apart from typhoid fever, levomycetin treats nothing. Our people swallow levomycetin for any diarrhea, so we will also create conditions for them to take it even more. So we are, it turns out, helping people engage in nonsense, to put it mildly, encouraging them.

In his opinion, prices should only be reduced for prescription medications - there should be a list of essential medicines, and these should become more accessible.

I have written so many times about how many people, instead of receiving proper treatment for hypertension or ischemic heart disease, sit at home, suck on validol, and swallow corvalol. These are essentially killer drugs. There is no such medication as corvalol in any country in the world. Because it is a terrible mistake. Barbiturates are generally prescription drugs, very dangerous. And we are lowering prices on this because people like it.

He also added that government intervention in market relations has never ended well.

Why are we even discussing the price? The state has started to regulate the market, market relations? Wonderful. I do not remember cases where this ended well. I understand that this list of medications is the cherry on the cake. They also write about regulating, for example, the markup that a pharmacy can make. But the price is formed not only because of this. The price largely depends on the cost set by the manufacturer. It turns out that we do not influence the manufacturer, but we influence the pharmacy. So I have doubts. Where did this government decision come from?

Let us remind you

On February 12, a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council took place, at which a decision was made to reduce the price of 100 medical drugs by 30%. Other medications are expected to decrease in price by 20%. On February 13, the President enforced this decision of the National Security and Defense Council.

The Ministry of Health of Ukraine published two lists of medications, the prices of which have been reduced since March 1. However, doctors and patients criticized it because it included, among other things, medications with unproven effectiveness: Corvalol, Validol, Urolesan, hepatoprotectors, Furacilin, Reosorbilact, Aloxol, Mukaltin, Sonmil, Ascorbic acid (in various forms), Novirin, Furagin.