Take a Sleeping Aid, Officials
73- Iryna Khalip
- 28.07.2017, 8:37
- 24,662
When the government begins upon medicines, the Belarusians clutch their heads.
"I began upon eggs, butter disappeared," that was the explanation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka twenty years ago, when some sorts of products disappeared from store shelves, if one can remember. Then cheese, butter, eggs disappeared all of a sudden in the country. Question on the phone "can you lend me an egg? I'll give it back in a week," sounded ordinary. A man with a pice of Poshekhonsy bread and a dozen eggs in a fridge was a man any girl would marry. My friends and colleagues brought me cheese and eggs from Moscow.
Now we can buy them in Belarus, but we still ask friends and colleagues, and we always take orders from relatives and friends when we leave for any of the neighboring countries. Because if Lukashenka together with the government begins upon something - eggs, prices, pensions, - the Belarusians clutch their heads in turn. And the next fight for survival begins. "Hunger Games" of the XXI century. After all, officials can come to anything, but not to senses.
This is summer now... They would shut themselves up in their multimillion-dollar houses and grow asparagus there. And would leave the Belarusians alone until September. No way, they sit and invent new methods to take away from Belarusians. And now Kabyakau once again begins upon medicines. He says that the government has taken up the analysis of prices on the market of medical preparations. Because people, he says, should not overpay for medicines, neither for domestic, nor for imported ones.
Well, it means the head of government has finally admitted that pharma drugs in Belarus are excessively expensive. At last. And let's remember: the post of Prime Minister has been taken by Andrei Kabyakau in December 2014. That is, two and a half years the head of the government has been thinking that medicines we have are cheap? ..
It's better for him not to pretend. After all, Kabyakau became Prime Minister just when Aliaksandr Lukashenka demanded from the Ministry of Health to "establish strict order" in the pharmaceutical market. So, he could not but know and think about it - his position implies obedience to Lukashenka. During Kabyakau's premiership scandalous Decree No. 196 which, in fact, became the "hedgehog" anti-tank obstacle on the way of imported medicines: doctors were forced to prescribe Belarusian medicines and were forbidden even to keep notebooks with logos of imported medicines on tables, pharmacies were obliged to report on the sale of domestic medicines, "aided persons" generally were deprived of the right to receive foreign pharma drugs. At the same time, every official, medical or general one, deemed appropriate to say that Belarusian medicines are cheaper. Now they have finally recognized that Belarusians overpay for everything.
My colleague Tatstsyana Kalinouskaya wrote on Facebook after the trip to Ukraine: "In Ukraine I had to buy medicines for relatives and friends. I compare prices in Belarus and Ukraine. In Belarus De-Nol (Bismuthate tripotassium dicitrate) costs $21, in Ukraine - $14.2; Detralex - Belarus -$24, Ukraine - $10.6. Cardiomagnyl does not exist in Belarus, Belarusians are poisoned by a Belarusian analog. German Cardiomagnyl costs $3.7 in Ukraine. There is no OMIX in Belarus. It costs $3.8 in Ukraine. The Belarusian analog makes things only worse, the cheapest drug Tulosin from Hungary costs $16. Enterogermina costs $8 in Belarus, in Ukraine - $6.5. There are no cough lozenges Strepsils® in Belarus, in Ukraine they cost $ 2.26. Who and how will stop this robbery and washing out popular assortment from pharmacies?"
I can add my list of medicines to Tatstsyana's. Plavix® is a drug vital for those who had a heart attack; one pays 25 rubles for a package of 14 tablets in Belarus. You pay the same for a package of 28 tablets in Poland. Sortis I buy for my parents in Lithuania is not available in Belarus at all. RispoleptI brought to my friend several times costs 5 dollars in Poland, 82 rubles in Belarus. I think this list can be supplemented by every reader. And at the end of your list, all the same, you will put the question posed in Tatstsyana's post: who and how will stop this robbery and washing out popular assortment from pharmacies?
It is clear that it will be done not by officials: their imitation activity always leads to even more wretched results for people. And all the statements on "Belarusians should not overpay for medicines" always turn out that the necessary medicines disappear from pharmacies. It's understandable that it's cheaper to bury once than to pay disability benefits, pensions and salaries. It turns out that Kabyakau is highly concerned about Citramonum. According to him, the price is slightly more expensive than in the neighboring countries. Why does he mean Citramonum? It seems that soon all diseases will be treated only with Citramonum, and then the salary of "$500" becomes a reality, because most of the Belarusians are dead, the burden on the budget will drop dramatically and it will be possible to finally realize this hidden dream. Citramon will not let down.
Once upon a time one of parodies of the Soviet humorist Alexander Ivanov had following phrases: "A poet does not sleep, the poet works. Let him take a sleeping aid!" When Belarusian officials start talking about medicines, I really want to tell them: drink something, a sleeping aid, for example. Phenobarbital is better. Or at least vodka. And get us rid of your bureaucratic delirium when you're under medication. We are even ready to buy in all Citramonum, even it is expensive.
Iryna Khalip for Charter97.org