A meeting of deputies of the Committee for Socio-Cultural Development and Science of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan with the management of SK-Pharmacy LLP on the effectiveness of the company as a single distributor operating within the guaranteed volume of free medical care and the system of mandatory social health insurance (MSHI) was held.
The meeting was attended by heads and representatives of the Ministries of Health, Industry and Infrastructure Development, Trade and Integration, State Institution “Department of Public Health of Nur‑Sultan city”, National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Atameken”, Non-Profit Joint Stock Company “Social Health Insurance Fund”, medical institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Opening the event, Secretary of the Committee for Socio-Cultural Development and Science Serik Bekturganov noted that the main purpose of the meeting is a comprehensive review of issues of drug provision for the population in the framework of outpatient treatment, while staying in hospitals and implementing the provisions of the Law “On amendments and additions to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the circulation of medicines and medical devices”, adopted in December 2018.
“In his Address to the people of Kazakhstan, the head of state K. Tokayev noted that, from January 1, 2020, Kazakhstan will launch a system of mandatory social health insurance, while maintaining a guaranteed amount of free medical care, for which more than 2.8 trillion tenge will be allocated in the next three years. The introduction of mandatory social health insurance will be aimed to improve the quality and availability of medical services,” said the Senator.
Speaking to the participants, Vice-Minister of Healthcare K. Nadyrov said that, on the instruction of the Yelbasy, in February 2009, the government of the country decided to create a unified distribution system for purchasing and providing medicines and medical products. “Since January 1, 2018, the purchase of medicines and medical devices for the population for outpatient drug provision has been centralized. Work has been carried out to improve the legislation. Changes were made to the Procurement Rules regarding the organization of electronic purchases on the portal of the Ministry of Finance. These measures, combined with new approaches to approving drug prices, have led to an improved competitive environment and significant savings – more than 26.5 billion tenge for procurement in 2018. In 2019, the savings amounted to 22.1 billion tenge,” the Vice Minister concluded.
The report was made by the acting Chairman of SK-Pharmacy – B. Sharip. According to him, SK-Pharmacy provides medicine provision to about 2 thousand medical organizations in the inpatient and outpatient sectors. At the expense of the single distributor’s own funds, an undiminished strategic stock of medicines and medical devices for socially significant diseases is formed annually.
He noted that as of 2020, the list of medicines and medical devices in the single distributor system within the framework of the MSHI has expanded from 1331 to 1385 names. Medical organizations declared a need for the amount of 259.1 billion tenge within this list.
“99% of the planned volume was purchased under long-term contracts. Contracts were signed with domestic producers for 578 items (53.7 billion tenge), 171 items were purchased under direct contracts for the amount of 74.1 billion tenge. At the moment, 15 items have been purchased with international organizations, and 7 more items are being purchased for the amount of 7.1 billion tenge,” the representative of SK-Pharmacy said.
During the meeting, the senators voiced problematic issues of the healthcare system, in particular issues related to the provision of the population with medicines and medical devices, the transition of providing free medicines to the co-payment system, ethical promotion of medicines, raised issues of development of the pharmaceutical industry and support for domestic producers, and others.
