Opposition slams Mato's plans to make the chronically-ill pay for hospital pharmacy drugs
Monday, September 23, 2013 @ 10:18 AM
HEALTH minister Ana Mato's latest cutback plans to make chronically-ill patients pay for medication dispensed in hospital is 'cruel, unjustifiable and brutal', says opposition leader Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba.
Outpatients with serious conditions are often sent to their hospital in-house pharmacy to pick up injections or pills which are then either administered at home or by nurses in the consultation departments, and these are free of charge.
They are not dispensed by high-street chemists due to their specialist nature.
Socialist leader Rubalcaba, and his secretary-general Elena Valenciano, say they 'cannot think of anything more cruel' than 'forcing people with no money to pay to stay alive'.
“Forcing people with cancer, hepatitis, or any other ongoing serious illness that does not need just one, but several types of expensive specialist medication to pay for the privilege is unthinkable cruelty,” Rubalcaba stormed when Mato (pictured) announced the move.
Trinidad Jiménez, who was health minister for a spell when the socialists were in power, called for Mato to resign for 'punishing, attacking and reducing to poverty' the 'most vulnerable citizens' in Spain.
“Not even in our worst nightmares could we ever imagine that the public health system would suffer such an attack by the government of Mariano Rajoy and minister Ana Mato,” Jiménez stated.
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