Patients with ileostomies in Cyprus were left for about ten days without the special bags they need every day after a ship carrying the supplies was delayed, according to the Cyprus Federation of Patients’ Associations (CyFPA).
Some medicines have also run short or been in very low supply, leaving patients facing difficulties or even risk until new stocks arrived.
The federation is calling for a mechanism to keep emergency stocks in Cyprus. Stocks have since been restored in the cases it cited, but its secretary, Charalambos Papadopoulos, said temporary shortages caused patients problems ranging from small to very serious.
“We cannot tell ileostomy patients to go ten days without the supplies they need,” Papadopoulos told Phileleftheros.
Ileostomy bags collect intestinal contents from people who have had ileostomy surgery, he said. They have to be changed regularly for hygiene, to protect the skin and so that patients can go about their daily lives, so they cannot simply wait for the next order to arrive.
Almost every month, he said, the federation received cases of patients whose needs were not being met and who could not get the supplies they needed, and almost every week it heard of shortages of specific medicines.
Call for a mechanism
Papadopoulos said the federation knew that in most cases, shortages of supplies or medicines were not caused by inaction on the part of the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) or the Ministry of Health, and that it was often told importers were struggling to bring new quantities into Cyprus. That did not mean all was well for patients, he said, since the consequences fell on them alone.
He said all the relevant bodies should set up a mechanism to hold stocks in Cyprus for emergencies. When companies gave early warning of an upcoming shortage, the HIO and the ministry stepped in and secured supplies from other sources, he said. But notification was often late, leaving a gap in patient care that needed to be closed.
Other shortages
Reports of medicine shortages reached the federation very often, he said. Recently, there were problems with the availability of an eye medicine and of a treatment for ulcerative colitis. In that case, no official shortage had been declared, but stocks were limited because of production and supply delays affecting the European market as a whole.
For people on long-term medication, he said, uncertainty over the next supply added to their anxiety, particularly when their treatment had to follow a set schedule.
The federation also received reports about other supplies, he said, including shortages, delivery delays and items that did not suit a patient’s needs, for example because of their size.
