Hospital organizations warn: Because of the corona, discussions will not end on time • Meaning: Delay in dozens of life-saving drugs • Ministry of Health: "The committee will convene as every year"
Composition of the Drug Basket Committee in previous years
Photo:
Oren Ben Hakon
The patients 'organizations warn that the vehicle has not yet been appointed to the drug basket committee and express concern that the discussions will not end on time and that the delivery of dozens of new drugs will be delayed, including life-saving drugs that affect patients' quality of life.
The drug basket committee is expected to decide each year until January 1 on the question of which new drugs will be given to patients. In previous years during this period the chairman of the committee and its members would have been appointed and the coordination and preparation work for the first discussions would begin in September or October. Last year the committee members were appointed in August, and the first meeting took place in early September. .
Life in danger
In a letter sent by the Coalition Forum of Healthy Organizations and the "5 billion for health" medical and nursing staff to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Deputy Minister Yoav Kish, they ask that they work to appoint committee members.
The forum, which includes the Association for Patient Rights, the State Physicians 'Association and the Brothers and Nurses' Federation, warns that "the delay in appointing the members of the basket committee will significantly impair its ability to submit its decisions to the government by the end of the year." And prolong life. "
The basket committee consists of representatives of the health funds, the ministries of health and finance, doctors and public representatives. It has been coordinated since its inception by Dr. Osnat Luxemburg, head of the technology division at the Ministry of Health. It was headed last year by Prof. Zeev Rothstein, CEO of Hadassah, and it is estimated that a new chairman will be appointed to the committee this year.
Photo: Hadassah spokeswoman
In the forum, they stated that they are aware of the burden that the Corona epidemic places on the Ministry of Health, but "it is important to continue to address ongoing and significant issues for patients, including the basket of drugs and technologies while fulfilling our role towards Israeli citizens, including cancer patients, heart disease, diabetes Thousands of patients whose fate depends on the decisions of the basket committee. "
"Crucial"
The budget for the addition to the drug basket in recent years has been NIS 500 million a year. This is an amount determined in three-year agreements between the ministries of health and finance within the framework of the state budget. This year in the absence of a state budget - there is no extra budget for the drug basket.
"It is crucial to appoint the committee urgently as well as to increase the budget allocated to it in order to include as many drugs and medical technologies as possible that will be defined by the committee as essential for an unspecified public of patients," write the heads of organizations including Shmulik Ben Yaakov, CEO Rosenzweig, CEO of the Ne'eman Stroke Victims Association.
As we reported in "Israel Today" there was an initiative in the Ministry of Health to postpone the basket committee's deliberations for two or three months due to the corona, but finally Health Minister Yuli Edelstein decided that the hearings would end on time, January 2021.
MK Ophir Katz. "Expanding the drug basket on an annual basis creates an opportunity for tens of thousands of patients to receive treatments, some of which are even life-saving. It is extremely important that the discussions take place at the designated time."
The Ministry of Health stated that "under the leadership of Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, a process is underway to determine the chairman and members of the public committee to expand the basket of health services. The committee is expected to convene this year, as it does every year. The purpose of the work process of the public committee will take into account the entire population. "
Proof of the great importance of these things can be found in Adv. Anat Berman (55) who discovered that she has lung cancer of the small cell type, which is considered the most deadly on the day her first granddaughter was born. A treatment she receives and not in a basket - Tysentric. That I have metastatic small cell lung cancer. "I started chemotherapy combined with an innovative immunotherapy treatment, which I have been receiving for about a year," she says, "thanks to this treatment I can even be interviewed today. The metastases are gone, and as of July I am free of the disease. The treatment gave me hope when it was no longer there, and I am sure there are hundreds more patients. Along with the improvement thanks to the treatment, I receive support and a hug from the Israeli Lung Cancer Association, with the help of a group of breathing friends and understand how important it is for my friends to receive the treatment. "
According to Berman," I receive immunotherapy as part of a compassion program. It is not possible to postpone the establishment of the drug basket committee and avoid saving the lives of many patients. "Every day that passes is a death sentence for many lung cancer patients."