Wednesday, April 10, 2013 16:08 | Written by Administrator | The Montesilvano Journal
Calculation methods for determining the pharmaceutical expenditure ceiling assigned to family doctors, this is the topic in an urgent question by regional councilor Cesare D'Alessandro to the President Chiodi, Commissioner for Health.
Recent national legislative provisions have introduced the option for citizens to choose between a generic drug and a so-called brand drug (subject to patent and more expensive) by paying the difference in price out of their own pockets.
To keep the expenditure induced by pharmaceutical prescriptions under control, every family doctor is assigned a budget; if it is exceeded, the doctor suffers a salary reduction.
Nothing to complain so far, the Region also considers the amount paid by citizens themselves (therefore not paid by the National Health Service) as an expense to be calculated within the scope of the budget assigned to each doctor.
Cesare D'Alessandro states “family doctors receive their salary in relation to the free choice of their clients, depending on whether they choose a generic drug or, instead, opt for a branded medicine. Having no direct responsibility with respect to the choices freely made by one's clients, it is unfair and inappropriate to load the consequences, including economic ones, on family doctors. In a country like ours, where responsibility is for many a optional, it seems unlikely to us that doctors should also have to pay for what is not their responsibility".
