Health minister acknowledges problems in emergency service
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, February 26
Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia Davit Sergeenko, states that prices on 500 types of medicines have increased by 15-20%.
“Out of over 15, 000 types of medicines, prices have been increased on 500 of them. This fluctuation in prices frequently takes place,” Segeenko said.
The minister claims that he has a plan on how to regulate the situation for the increase not to strain or irritate people.
“However, the plan requires time to work. Meanwhile, some companies, PSP among them, showed their goodwill and decreased costs of 10 types of medicines by 20%,” Segeenko said.
The minister states that the government has two levers to influence the situation. The first is a state subsidy for the companies to recover losses and the second is imposing a profit margin for vital medicines.
“We monitor the development and come up with a solution only after taking the situation into account,” he said.
The minister also touched upon the emergency system errors. According to him, being late to the destination is a huge problem for the service.
“In the regions we have improved this situation by replacing old, broken vehicles with new ones. But in the capital city we have other problems, and it is not related to technical problems. It is about management.
“I will have a meeting with the Head of the 112 Service (Emergency, Police, Rescue, Fire Services) and representatives of the Mayor’s Office these days. I am sure we will find an outcome,” Sergeenko said.
