Free Medications Awareness is Seriously Deficient, Ombudsman States

Free medications awareness is seriously deficient. Due to the ineffectiveness of provided free medications, people are forced to purchase expensive drugs or face guidance towards specific medications. This was stated by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, on his Facebook page.

Because of the ineffectiveness of free medications provided by the state, patients acquire a significant portion of medications during hospital or outpatient-polyclinic care at their own expense. Complaints from socially disadvantaged individuals and their families have highlighted instances where doctors themselves recommend against using state-provided free medications, citing their inefficacy.

An additional problematic situation arises from the state's tender process for free medications, where the participant offering the lowest price wins. As a result, patients are offered the cheapest medications, which raises concerns regarding the quality or effectiveness of these drugs. It turns out that the state allocates the cheapest medications, even when their quality is questioned not only by the user but also by the seller and the treating physician. Furthermore, there are complaints about deterioration in health conditions.

As a result, the state fails to fulfill its obligations or does so with deficiencies. Documented complaints have reported cases where individuals were directed to a specific pharmaceutical company, believing that the free medications provided were ineffective. In this case, the issue is that the hospital is not obliged to provide the patient with higher quality medications for treatment.

This situation also leads to cases where illegal payments are charged from patients, forcing individuals to seek expensive or hard-to-obtain medications, including unregistered ones. Instances arise where guidance is provided to obtain medications through 'backdoor' means, often with the expectation of profit from sales, or at least generating such an impression among people.

Significant issues occur when free medications are not provided, not due to being absent from the designated list but due to delays or failures in the announced tender. One of the main reasons for not receiving medications is that patients are not aware of their rights regarding accessing medications or specific types of drugs. In all documented cases, people have been informed after contacting the Ombudsman’s office, either through consultations or alerts from the staff.

Complaints from 2021 indicate that there has been a continuation of the same practices this year. In the current year, citizens who have approached the Ombudsman seeking various medications and are unable to afford them for financial reasons have been directed by the Human Rights Defender's staff to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia or local polyclinics. However, follow-up communication with citizens has shown that the necessary medications were rarely available.

The alerts have indicated that, mainly, people received rejections based on the justification that the medications were unavailable. In this case, the problematic aspect is that the presence of certain medications received and distributed through humanitarian aid is only known to the medical institution; hence, individuals inquire at the Ombudsman’s office for information on medication availability from the Ministry of Health or polyclinics.

All these issues are based on the complaints received by the Human Rights Defender, along with the results of their investigations that reached the Ombudsman.