Prague, Dec 18 (CTK) – Zdenek Blahuta has resigned as head of the Czech State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL), the Health Ministry has written on its website in the wake of new Health Minister Adam Vojtech’s (ANO) criticism of the e-prescription system for which the SUKL is responsible.
The system of compulsory electronic prescriptions is to take effect as of January. Vojtech, a member of the ANO government appointed last week, previously said the system is poorly prepared, which is why he will not fine doctors for shunning it.
Blahuta applied for being relieved of his post for personal reasons as of Monday, the ministry wrote, adding that Blahuta’s successor will be chosen in a competition.
The SUKL is in charge of permitting new medicines’ entry onto the market and of checking the medicines on sale.
It also gathers information about undesired effects of medicines and is in charge of preparing the e-prescription system which, however, has came under the criticism of doctors, pharmacists as well as patients.
In a letter addressed to ANO MP Andrej Babis, now the new prime minister, in late November, Blahuta wrote that the SUKL is well prepared for the e-prescription system though its opponents assert the opposite.
“For now, no one has been willing to voice the only and genuine reason behind the strong resistance to e-prescriptions. It [the new system] highlights the black hole in prescribing medicines and also various ties between doctors and pharmacists, or more precisely, between doctors and pharmaceutical companies,” Blahuta wrote.
Electronic prescriptions were introduced in the Czech Republic in 2007 but their use has not been binding on doctors.
The new system, whose creation cost 14 million crowns and its operation 100,000 crowns a month, is to involve up to 130 million prescriptions a month, compared with some 70 million paper prescriptions annually issued so far.
The new system’s advocates expect it to cut the spending on medicines by 400 million crowns at least.
