Bahrain MPs demand subsidising medicines

Manama  : Bahraini lawmakers have recently demanded that the government subsidise medicines for chronic diseases. They asked for supporting medicines for cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes, kidney diseases, neuropathology, rheumatism and high cholesterol.

The MPs said their proposal comes to provide some categories of citizens, including retirees and low-income citizens, with medications that are difficult to obtain from public hospitals and health centres.

The proposal was submitted by MPs Ali Bufarsan, Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Anas Buhindi, Nabeel Al Balooshi and Mohammed Al Ahmad.

They said it comes within the instructions of the eighth article of Bahrain’s Constitution, which stipulates that “Every citizen shall have the right to health welfare. The State shall care for public health and ensure means of prevention and treatment by establishing various kinds of hospitals and provide medical facilities”.

“Through this proposal, we seek easing the sufferings of citizens with chronic diseases, by providing them with medicines that are usually not available at public healthcare institutions, and cost big amounts,” the MPs said in a statement.

They added: “The State has taken the responsibility of providing healthcare services to citizens. So we believe that medicines for the mentioned diseases should be available free of charge.”

Meanwhile, despite obtaining the necessary approval from the concerned committee in the Parliament, the proposal was rejected by the Health Ministry, which pointed out that all medicines were available for citizens.

The Ministry commented, “All chronic diseases’ medicines are provided free to citizens. In case a medicine isn’t on the Ministry’s drugs’ list, a special order would be made to import the medicine.”

“Around 313 new drugs have been recently added to the Ministry’s warehouses. There are 17 types of medicines available for heart diseases and hypertension, 25 for diabetes, 33 for kidney diseases and 12 for rheumatism. This proves the unlimited support of the government to the healthcare sector in the Kingdom,” the Ministry added in a statement.

Majority of Parliament’s Services’ Committee members agreed to the proposal and it would be voted it on by the Council on Tuesday.