A draft law of the Ministry of Health, which, among other things, includes the Single List of Surgeries was submitted to public consultationthe creation of an Electronic System for monitoring the circulation of drugs in the domestic market and the home delivery of proprietary pharmaceutical preparations for the treatment of serious illnesses.

The draft law entitled “Arrangements to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, strengthening the protection of public health and health services, the electronic system for monitoring drug trafficking, the Unified List of Surgeries and other urgent provisions”, will remain on page opengov.gr for one week, until Tuesday, September 26, 2023.

In more detail, the bill states that: “in the context of upgrading the NHS, protecting equality, transparency and patients’ rights, of the modernization of the preparation, maintenance, organization and operation of the list of surgeries of the NHS hospitals, the need for planning and organization of the surgeries”, a system of archiving a single nationwide list of surgeries is created – via the Internet – with the aim of centrally managing the existing separate lists of surgeries of hospitals and the standardization of procedures.

The amended provision intends through the utilization of new IT technologies to be prepared, the cases of patients requiring surgery are organized and monitored in all the NHS hospitals of the country, in order to achieve a significant reduction in patient waiting times. At the same time, the possibility of centralized data management is provided for making strategic decisions based on the real image of the lists. Also, emergency/urgent cases are now included in the list, so that the exact number of surgeries can be displayed correctly and in real conditions. Primary objective of the Ministry Health, is to achieve a significant reduction in patient waiting, while at the same time providing the possibility of centralized data management for making strategic decisions based on the real picture of the lists.

In regards to creation of an Electronic System for monitoring the circulation of drugs in the domestic market, as stated in the text of the draft law, the purpose of the proposed provision is to increase transparency along the entire drug supply chain in the domestic market, early detection and prediction of drug shortages. “The Electronic Medicines Traffic Monitoring System (DMS), which will monitor the domestic circulation of drugs, meets the urgent need to deal with cases of drug shortages quickly, flexibly and efficiently, in order to cover on time,” it says. In addition, all entities involved in the process, natural and legal persons, undertake the obligation to register the necessary data regarding the circulation and sale of medicines in this new system. In this way, control and monitoring of the circulation of medicines in the country will be achieved in order to cover these deficiencies and the needs of the patients, the Ministry of Health estimates.

Finally, for the relief of patients suffering from serious diseases, the possibility is provided for the insured, who are receiving medication with medicinal preparations for the treatment of serious diseases of par. 2 of article 12 of Law 3816/2010, to receive the above pharmaceutical preparations at home, from EOPYY pharmacies, through a certified courier company.