DRUG CONSUMPTION IN KOSOVO IS IT PREDICTION OR PLANNING?

Health Insurance System in Kosovo has not started yet and due to this all the prescriptions of medicines are paid from patients from 'out of pocket' money. In this regard there is no system or database which collects the data about drug consumption in the pharmacies while the Kosovo Medicines Agency has published the drug consumption which is based on imports from wholesalers. This published analysis includes all the medicines that are imported in Kosovo and also those that are manufactured in Kosovo, and that are distributed later to retail pharmacies, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations. Hospital prescriptions and prescription from primary health care centers are based on the essential list of medicines mainly and the annual planning for these medicines is always been an issue for the policy makers since there no health information system in place for the entire health system and there is no prescription database existing, this makes it that every year there are debates for the (non) fulfillment of the real needs of the patients. In this context due to changes in planning of the medicines in the essential list there is a question to be made on the drug consumption if it is based on a planning or in predictions? This paper analyses the prescriptions planning/predictions over two year period in the health system in Kosovo and the main results show that the start of the drug insurance system will be also the start of the implementation of all the requirements that will make drug consumption to be based on a planning and not predictions.