The authors of the Telegram channel «Zlobnaya Tateshka» have found contradictions in the statements of the former Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Azhar Giniyat, and representatives of LLP «SK-Pharmacy».
As reported, in May 2023 Azhar Giniyat stated that in Kazakhstan, 4 million people had received free medicines, which is nearly one in five Kazakhstani citizens. However, at the same time, representatives of «SK-Pharmacy» stated that in reality, 2 million people had received free medicines.
«Positive dynamics are also observed in the volume of procurement through the single distributor, which in monetary terms has grown 14-fold, and the number of items – 2.2-fold. Thanks to centralised procurement, more than 2,000 medical organisations and more than 2 million patients are provided with medicines», the statement reads.
At the same time, it is reported that 4 years ago, the healthcare system had already identified contradictory data on the number of recipients of free medicines. At the beginning of 2018, official documents stated 3 million people, and the budget for these purposes was around 120 billion tenge.
«Through total digitalisation of medicine provision, by the end of 2018 the number of recipients of free medicines became 2 million; 1 million were fictitious recipients», the channel's authors claim.
Thus, it turned out that in 2019, the actual number of recipients of free medicines was only 2 million, and the budget for them was much lower – 90 billion tenge.
«So, the budget was cut by 30 billion tenge, and they got rid of 1 million fake recipients of free medicines. Three years pass, and according to Giniyat's statement, 4 million people began receiving free medicines, meaning the number of recipients grew by 100%, and the budget amounted to 260 billion tenge, an increase of 189%», the statement reads.
The authors of the channel «Zlobnaya Tateshka» are asking questions: if there were 2 million recipients, where did Giniyat get another 2 million people from, and where was the 130 billion tenge actually spent?
Earlier, as previously reported, from 1 July Kazakhstan planned to introduce mandatory labelling and traceability of medicines. According to experts, this would help solve the issue of counterfeit products on the domestic market.
Also before this, it became known that the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan received a proposal to implement a medicine monitoring programme from the company Medical Value Chain (MVC). However, Kazakhtelecom lobbied for its own product labelling information system, which, according to experts, is significantly inferior to the foreign alternative.
The editorial board of FBRK even conducted an analysis of both information systems to determine which of the presented monitoring programmes is more effective.