By Marilena Panayi
Copyright philenews
Doctors say current vaccine procurement procedures are acting as a disincentive to vaccination programmes, with medical associations warning that vaccination coverage rates are declining year on year.
The presidents of the Scientific Society of Family and Personal Doctors and the Cyprus Paediatric Society told Phileleftheros that whilst doctors always support vaccinations, Health Ministry procedures are discouraging them.
“Each doctor submits the number of vaccines needed to cover the needs of their own beneficiaries. The doctor pays for the vaccines and when they are administered and the vaccination is registered in the General Health System software, the Health Insurance Organisation comes and pays the cost. That is, what the doctor paid when buying the vaccine,” they explained.
Financial burden on doctors
Cyprus Paediatric Society president Michalis Anastasiades said this procedure “troubles doctors and makes them think twice, because if the doctor pays for vaccines now, they will be reimbursed by the Health Insurance Organisation when the vaccines are administered and will only get back the vaccine cost. Other expenses are not covered, such as consumables used in a vaccination. If the vaccines are not administered then they will remain stacked in their surgery. If they are destroyed for any reason, which often happens, then the cost remains with the doctor”.
Family and Personal Doctors president Mary Avraamidou said doctors often order vaccines based on the number of beneficiaries registered on their lists who meet Health Ministry criteria for specific vaccinations.
“When the doctor orders vaccines they must arrange patient appointments. This is not such an easy procedure. If patients do not come for vaccination then the vaccines remain in our surgeries,” she said.
Declining vaccination rates
Avraamidou said this approach “does not serve the basic purpose of vaccination, which is disease prevention and population coverage. We have already started having problems and observing that vaccination coverage rates are falling year by year”.
The problem is inevitably greater for paediatricians who vaccinate children against many more diseases, with vaccination forming an integral part of monitoring and serving children registered on their lists.
Calls for policy changes
Family doctors and paediatricians have discussed the issue with the Health Minister and Health Insurance Organisation, but no alternative procedure has been found. “At this moment, mainly for younger colleagues, the way we operate constitutes a disincentive to promote vaccination,” they said.
The Cyprus Association of Research and Development Pharmaceutical Companies has also highlighted problems arising from doctors’ vaccine procurement procedures in a letter to the Health Minister, requesting a special meeting to find solutions aimed at strengthening vaccination in Cyprus.
The association has prepared recommendations for changing current procedures, proposing, among other things, delivering vaccines to doctors without charge and paying additional amounts to cover their operational expenses.
