After the attack by Codacons against the prescriptions of 'designer' drugs, the Order of Doctors of Udine takes sides alongside the national federation. And he asks for a clarifying meeting with the Minister of Health
The choice of Monti government to revolutionize drug prescriptions - forcing the doctor to indicate on the prescription the name of the active ingredient of the medicine and, only in some specific cases, the name of the drug and its possible non-substitutability with a generic - continues to arouse controversy. Splitting the country in two between those who are in favor of the spread of non-branded medicines and those who, on the other hand, fear that they can no longer make use of the 'branded' remedies that have been in use for some time or, simply, that they are free to choose how to treat themselves. Various consumer protection associations and, in particular, the Codacons, mobilized by inviting “patients who find a doctor who persists in indicating the designer drug on the prescription to report it even anonymously. The association will ask the Guardia di Finanza to verify whether there is an economic interest behind this stubbornness”.
A declaration that saw the immediate reply of the National Federation of Medical Associations (Fnomceo), alongside which the Order of Udine. “Codacons is thinking about defending consumers, not denouncing doctors. The reaction of consumer representatives is evidence of how the new legislation on medicines, in the absence of shared interpretations between doctors and institutions, undermines the relationship of trust in the choices of professionals by citizens, with further risks of defensive medicine or of resistance to innovation”, informs the Friulian association.
“The Federation has already expressed in recent days in a letter to Minister of Health Balduzzi his position on the new rules governing pharmaceutical prescriptions, highlighting the critical issues and asking for the urgent opening of a roundtable which, with the participation of all interested parties, will work on the proposal for a redefinition of all the legislation, first of all safeguarding the health of citizens. In any case, it should be noted that the recent ministerial circular interpreting the new law did not allow the implementation of a confused and difficult-to-apply system”, the doctors continue.
