RATIONAL DRUG USE POLICY IN TURKEY

1. RATIONAL DRUG USE POLICY IN TURKEY Dedeoglu, Burcak Deniz; Celik, Hatice Demet; Akbulat, Akif; Akar, Halil; Kerman, Saim.

2. Abstract RATIONAL DRUG USE POLICY IN TURKEY BurcakDenizDedeoglu, HaticeDemetCelik, AkifAkbulat, HalilAkar,SaimKerman Ministry of Health of Turkey, Turkey Studies were conducted by Ministry of Health and many different associations on the issue about“Rational drug use” in Turkey. Institutional activities regarding this issue has been initiated on 12.10.2010 by the Ministry of Health of TURKEY with the establishment of rational drug use department under the the department of pharmacoeconomics. Among the main purposes of the Rational Drug Use Department; generalizing the principles of rational drug use all over the TURKEY and performing campaigns with this aim can be stressed. In order to make suggestions to Social Security Institution (SSI) about the issues of; considering the principles of rational drug use while devoloping the repayment (reimbursement) plans, obtaining the education of the health staff on principles of rational drug use, evaluating the prescriptions according to principles of rational drug use, coordinating the publishment of the national guidelines for diagnosis and treatment and drug guideline periodically and measuring the awareness level of society and health staff about rational drug use. Based on the data taken from SSI, excluding the primary healthcare services, the number of patients applied to a healthcare service and invoices have been sent to SSI in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 216.930.000, 247.142.000 and 230.112.000 (for first ten months of 2010) respectively, in Turkey. These numbers were classified as “outpatients”, “inpatients”, “others” and “daily” for months. In monthly distrubition perspective, the applications were higher in summer than winter. Total prescription number for workers, civil servants and green card owners in 2009 and 2010 (for first ten months of 2010) were 327.000.000 and 250.138.000 respectively and total prescription invoice number was 16.000 billion TL and 12.259 billion TL. while the average costs per prescription were 48.95 TL. and 49.01 TL, respectively. The expectation is, the rational drug use policy will reduce the total drug cost and increase the awareness of society and health staff about rational drug use.

3. Introduction Studies were conducted by Ministry of Health and many different associations on the issue about“Rational drug use” in Turkey. Institutional activities regarding this issue has been initiated on 12.10.2010 by the Ministry of Health of Turkey with the establishment of rational drug use department. Among the main purposes of the Rational Drug Use Department; generalizing the principles of rational drug use all over the Turkeyand performing campaigns with this aim can be stressed. In order to make suggestions to Social Security Institution (SSI) about the issues of; considering the principles of rational drug use while devoloping the repayment (reimbursement) plans, obtaining the education of the health staff on principles of rational drug use, evaluating the prescriptions according to principles of rational drug use, coordinating the publishment of the national guidelines for diagnosis and treatment and drug guideline periodically and measuring the awareness level of society and health staff about rational drug use.

4. Objectives Evaluationthecurrentsituationabouthealthcareservicesanddrugsbyanalaysingthe data of SSI and IMS InstituteforHealthcareInformatics. The number of patients applied to a healthcare services and invoice costs; the number of prescriptiontakenfromPharmacyPrevisionSystemandinvoicecosts; 2010 drugunitsandcostsaccordingto ATC (AnatomicalTherapeuticChemical) codeswereanalaysed.

5. Results 1 Table 1: The number of patients applied to a healthcare service, excluding the primary healthcare services, and invoicecosts Ref: SSI MonthlyStatisticalBulletin; Publication No:13 P.S.: Data areexpandedthantheabstractbecause of thenewversion of SSI StatisticalBulletin

6. Results 2 Table 2: The number of prescriptiontakenfromPharmacyProvisionSystemandinvoicecosts Ref: SSI MonthlyStatisticalBulletin; Publication No:13 P.S.: Data areexpandedthantheabstractbecause of thenewversion of SSI StatisticalBulletin

7. Results 3 Table 3: DrugUnits in 2010 acordingto ATC code Ref: IMS InstituteforHealthcareInformatics

8. Results 4 Table 4: Drugcosts in 2010 acordingto ATC code Ref: IMS InstituteforHealthcareInformatics

9. PolicyImplications & Conclutions Among the main purposes of the Rational Drug Use Department; generalizing the principles of rational drug use all over the Turkey and performing campaigns with this aim can be stressed. In order to make suggestions to Social Security Institution (SSI) about the issues of; considering the principles of rational drug use while devoloping the repayment (reimbursement) plans, obtaining the education of the health staff on principles of rational drug use, evaluating the prescriptions according to principles of rational drug use, coordinating the publishment of the national guidelines for diagnosis and treatment and drug guideline periodically and measuring the awareness level of society and health staff about rational drug use. The expectation is, the rational drug use policy will reduce the total drug cost and increase the awareness of society and health staff about rational drug use.