The tragic news from Heraklion, where a 72-year-old man with cancer committed suicide, as he could not find it in pharmacies the anti-cancer drug he was supposed to take, commented the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis.
The Minister of Health spoke on the Live News program and after expressing his condolences to the family of the deceased, he stated that “because it was heard that the responsibility lies with the National Health System due to the lack of etoposide, this is not completely accurate”.
“Etoposide is a cheap drug, 11 euros, it was in short supply for a few days. We had intervened directly from the ministry and secured an order through IFET immediately. Now a normal import is done, the lack has been fully remedied. We had booked the patient, according to our electronic system, an appointment to receive his treatment on 3/4. He did not come and was notified electronically. We made a new appointment for him for today, but he didn’t show up,” he then added.
“The medicine would be taken by the patient. If he did not find it once, medicine was found, an appointment was made and he did not come. At the moment there is no shortage of medicine, we have introduced it, we have corrected the problem that existed with its price”, stressed Mr. Georgiadis.
According to doctors, it is estimated that every four weeks delay in starting anti-cancer treatment reduces the chances of survival by 10%, with pathologist-oncologist Michalis Lionos talking about this at the Economist conference.
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