From Friday to yesterday, 650 boxes of "buprenorphine" were delivered to the Podgorica Health Center, which addicts receive, while since the beginning of the month, all health institutions have received about 7.000 boxes of this medicine, according to "Montefarm".
However, they deny this in the Podgorica Health Center, and the head of the Center for Mental Health of the Health Center Ljubinko Kaluđerović claims that in the last delivery they received 250 boxes of eight and 100 boxes of two milligrams of this drug.
"That was enough for us for three days. And therapy was distributed to 838 patients, as of Monday," said Kaluđerović.
He said that from 11 a.m. today, with the involvement of management, the Ministry of Health and the Health Fund, the distribution of this medicine should continue.
"In the period from August 1 to August 23 of this year, Montefarm delivered 4.027 boxes of the drug 'buprenorphine' 2 mg tablets to all health centers in Montenegro where addicts receive therapy. During the same period, 2.780 boxes of medicine of 8 milligrams were delivered," said the institution.
In "Montefarm" they claim that 19 boxes of "buprenorphine" 320x7 mg and 2 boxes of "buprenorphine" 330x7 mg were delivered only at the level of the Podgorica Health Center from Friday, August 8, until yesterday.
The Health Center announced yesterday that, during the regular weekly request for buprenorphine from "Montefarm", they received a response that the drug is not currently available in that institution and that they do not know when it will be available. They stated that they sent several urgent letters to the Ministry of Health, the Health Fund and the Board of Directors to inform them of this problem.
More than a dozen patients protested yesterday in front of the Health Center in the Konik neighborhood of Podgorica, threatening to block roads if they did not receive treatment soon. Some patients, with whom "Vijesti" spoke, claimed that their dose of this drug had not been reduced since the beginning of treatment, and some admitted that there was a violation of the protocol.
According to data available on the website of Montenegrin electronic public procurement, more than 50.000 boxes of buprenorphine were purchased since the end of last year, for which around 310.000 euros were spent.
"The administration of therapy is indefinite. Sometimes we had to drink it on the spot in one day, sometimes in three..." said one of the patients.
"Vijesti" announced ten days ago that health institutions had run out of "buprenorphine" tablets in the past few days, but that "Montefarm" claims that the situation with the drug is stable for now and that it has been delivered to health centers twice since the beginning of the month.
There is also a lack of medicine in other health centers, especially in Bar and Nikšić.
At the beginning of this week, citizens complained about the shortage of this medicine in the health centers in Bar and Podgorica, but "Montefarm", which supplies medical institutions with medicines, claims that "buprenorphine" was delivered on August 4 and 9 this year. They explained that the institutions are supplied with both 2 mg and 8 mg medicine.
According to data from the electronic public procurement website, "Montefarm" requested about 80 medicines in mid-June, including "buprenorphine" of 2 and 8 mg. 5.000 boxes of this medicine were requested, with a total value of around 56.000 euros, while at the end of last year, a tender was also announced for the procurement of "buprenorphine" and 43.000 packages with an estimated value of 264.530 euros were requested.
As of 2017, the anti-addiction drug is available exclusively in health institutions, under the supervision of health workers.
Yesterday, Kaluđerović confirmed to the "News" that there are abuses of this drug and that all countries that have introduced buprenorphine therapy face this, and that their task is to reduce it to a minimum.
"By strengthening the personnel potential in the Health Center, the situation should change. On the other hand, I often understand that my colleagues are exposed to pressure from problematic patients..." he said.
Kaluđerović pointed out that many problems inherited from earlier times cannot be solved overnight, and that a sufficient number of psychiatrists who will work with addicts, adequate space, sufficient security are needed...
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