Spending on medicines increases: 192 euros per person. But for consumer associations the cause is the prices: up to 15% more
TRIESTE The citizens of Friuli Venezia Giulia pay more and more medicines and more and more expensive. From 2000 to 2005, the average expense for medicines paid by each citizen of the Region increased from 139.90 euros per year to 191.60, with an increase of 40 percent, equal to 51.8 euros. The data derives from the research carried out by the Formez Training Center on health governance, presented at the annual conference of Aies, the Italian Association of Health Economics. According to the research, the data that most weighs on this result is the number of drugs consumed, expressed in dde (defined doses per day), i.e. the average daily dose of the drug which, conventionally, measures its use. In Fvg, in 2000 this value was 536, in 2005 it rose to 754, about 40% more. In practice, therefore, you consume more and as such you pay more.
However, according to some consumer associations, a certain role is played by the increase in the prices of medicines, which, as in other parts of Italy, went from 5 to 15% in two years, from 2002 to 2004, even for widely consumed medicines. However, it should be noted that the regional figure is in any case lower, by as much as 17 percent, than the national average. Furthermore, the incidence of public intervention, ie of the regional system, is in any case high: equal to 66%. This means that only 44 percent of pharmaceutical expenditure falls on individual citizens.
THE INDEXES They are different. In fact, the research analyzed both the expenditure of the health system in relation to the needs of its citizens, and the performance of its governance system. Because, as we know, if you spend a lot but the results are few, you certainly can't talk about 'good management'. As regards the first aspect, the answer that the health system is able to give to its citizens was calculated (and here the Fvg ended up in the area of those considered 'coherent'), and the expenditure it uses to achieve these results. Given an optimal result of 1, the Fvg, on a needs index of 0.73 (index resulting from Istat indicators) employs an expense of 0.75, therefore adequate to needs.
GLOBAL INDEX By averaging these elements, the global performance index results, an element that names Fvg as the second region in Italy for economic efficiency after Tuscany, with a total performance index of 0.79. The Fvg, according to the research, sees high results especially in the field of expected results, i.e. the outcomes in terms of improvement in health (reduction of mortality, attention to disability) and equality (equality of access and taxation).
COUNTER DRUGS Meanwhile, Federfarma is mobilizing to avoid the approval of the part of the decree on liberalizations that allows the sale of prescription drugs outside pharmacies, and proposes longer hours, 2,200 more pharmacies and the elimination of prescriptions for some products. The new pharmacies, which would bring the total number to around 20,000, would guarantee a better service even in very small towns and urban suburbs as well as in airports, large railway stations, motorway junctions and large shopping centres.
Elena Orsi - The Piccolo of 18/11/2007 ed. national p. 9
