Drugs for serious illnesses to be delivered to homes

A provision included in draft legislation tabled by the Health Ministry will allow for the home delivery of high-cost drugs to patients with serious illnesses, a move that will spare them having to queue outside the 35 EOPYY pharmacies nationwide that sell them. 

The provision provides for the medicines to be delivered by courier to patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, kidney failure etc. The bill will be debated in Parliament on Wednesday, with the aim of starting home distribution at the start of 2024.

A logistics system will be developed so that these medicines “are delivered at EOPYY’s expense to the home or to the hospitals where the treatment takes place, so that we don’t have a problem with queues of patients at EOPYY’s pharmacies again,” Health Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said Tuesday. 

There are some issues to solve for medicines that need to be kept refrigerated, he added.