Dime Velev, president of the Union of Diabetic Associations, is shocked and negatively surprised by the diabetes management preparations that have started to be distributed from the new tender concluded by the Ministry of Health. The association demands that a reference price be introduced urgently and that every diabetic has the right to buy the strips and glucometers he wants, because the new ones are questionable in his opinion.

We are shocked and negatively surprised by what they are trying to share right now. First, the quantity is discriminatory and small. People with type 1 diabetes go to one pharmacy, and people with type 2 go to another. We are shocked by how glucometers are given to patients in a public health facility that are not in the original packaging, without a declaration, in a plastic bag, with no deadline or guarantee. there is nothing, not even a sanitary pen for pricking. A number of tapes have appeared in some kind of strange packaging and not in the original packaging. They have a declaration printed here only in the Macedonian language. Some of the patients say that there is not even a box, but the strips are just put inside like that, in a bundle. They made total chaos and underestimation, Velev told Sloboden Pechat.

He adds that they are looking for an urgent meeting with the National Diabetes Commission because it is an expert body that should explain what is happening as soon as possible.

After this, the contract of the company that was selected in the tender should be cancelled. Two thirds of Macedonia is not covered by tapes and devices, starting from Veles, Tetovo and Kumanovo. In 41 insulin pharmacies there is an announcement only that one third of the patients will receive from the distribution that is carried out this week. Now the petitions to the Commission for Protection against Discrimination and to the Ombudsman are gaining even more weight. One cannot hand out ribbons as he pleases, but there should be for everyone, Velev adds.

He says the Union was too patient, but trust and patience have worn thin.

We suffered, we negotiated, we honestly announced what we were looking for, but this is no longer the case. Let them cancel the contract immediately and ask below the urgent reference price. FZOM should introduce a reference price and everyone should buy for themselves within that price what they need with prescriptions they get from the doctor. At our choice and with the possibility of additional payment. For me personally, this looks like what happened at the time of parallel import, adds Velev.