Representative Adel Al-Lami, member of the House of Representatives, BBriefing request Addressed to the Minister of Health and Population and Chairman of the Comprehensive Health Insurance Authority, regarding the suffering of chronic disease patients, especially patients with immune and kidney diseases, from the complexity of procedures for obtaining treatment approvals within the comprehensive health insurance system.
Al-Lamai explained that a large number of patients face extreme difficulties in completing treatment procedures, starting with a series of medical tests, then going through several committees, and ending with sending approved medical reports to obtain final approval to dispense treatment, which represents a huge burden on patients and delays their receipt of the medicine at the appropriate time.
The member of the House of Representatives pointed out that the regulating rules stipulate the issuance of therapeutic approvals within a period not exceeding 48 hours, but the reality is witnessing noticeable delays, especially in exceptional approvals, which exposes patients to direct health risks as a result of the delay in starting or completing treatment, stressing that this deficiency reflects the absence of binding time controls for exceptional approvals, compared to prior approvals, which leads to repeated delays without clear justification, and threatens the stability of critical medical cases.
Al-Lamai pointed out that completely repeating the procedures when renewing the dispensing of medicines, despite the issuance of previous exceptional approvals, represents an unjustified complexity, especially since these approvals are issued based on the decisions of specialized medical committees and in accordance with specific controls. He called for the necessity of adhering to the legal period specified for issuing therapeutic approvals, most notably the 48-hour period, in addition to simplifying the procedures and reducing the number of required committees, especially in cases of chronic diseases that require continuous, uninterrupted treatment.
Representative Adel Al-Lami also called for granting broader powers to the competent authorities within the governorates to reduce referrals to central authorities, and to establish an urgent and rapid mechanism to deal with requests for exceptional approvals, in a way that ensures rapid response and does not endanger the lives of patients.
