Pharmacists warn of drug shortage, call strike

Page last updated at 14:45 GMT, Monday, May 21, 2012 - 19:45 EST

eKathimerini:

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Pharmacies will close on Wednesday as owners protest the fact that social security funds have yet to settle their mounting unpaid drugs bill, while pharmacists are warning that some medicines are already in short supply.

Pharmacists have decided to close their stores for one day and to stop supplying customers with medicines on credit until the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY), the country’s main healthcare provider, settles debts of some 250 million euros for prescriptions issued in March. The pharmacists claim they are also owed about 250 million euros for medicines they sold on credit in 2011 to customers insured with social security funds that were incorporated into EOPYY earlier this year.

In fact, pharmacists claimed on Monday that they have seen an internal EOPYY document that suggests the organization will get a maximum of 784 million euros in funding this year. The pharmacists point out that the bill for medicines they supply to those insured with EOPYY reaches 250 million euros most months and that the organization will soon not be able to pay its drugs bills.

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