Health officials planned to purchase 43 million doses of the vaccine, which would cost 220 million euros, Health Minister Recep Akdağ announced, and signed agreements with drug companies to that effect. However, the ministry has recently announced its intent to reduce its purchase of the H1N1 vaccine, citing the current decline of the swine flu epidemic, which started in April of last year, as a reason.The SGK planned to spend TL 15.6 billion on medication in 2009. TL 15.9 billion was spent on drugs in 2009, a TL 2 billion increase when compared to 2008. In addition to 8 million doses of the swine flu vaccine purchased in 2009, almost half of which have been administered, more drugs were used in Turkey than was expected due to the fear of swine flu, which reached its peak in November and December, increasing Turkey’s medication expenses. Treatment costs also increased by 15 percent in 2009 when compared to 2008. While there were 217 million visits to hospitals for examinations or treatment in 2008, the number increased to 249 million in 2009.
The government aims to take new measures to decrease spending on medication, which makes up nearly half of Turkey’s health expenditures. The government plans to decrease medication expenses, which are expected to reach TL 17.1 billion in 2010, to TL 14.6 billion.
As part of these plans, the SGK will exert effort to prevent irregularities in drug prescriptions. The institution aims to curb unnecessary drug consumption by controlling double prescriptions of drugs. The SGK also plans to promote relatively less expensive generic drugs to decrease medication costs.
The Health Ministry released a report last week on the status of the swine flu pandemic in Turkey and around the world. It predicted that based on past epidemics, one out of every five people in Turkey will have been infected by the swine flu virus by the time the pandemic subsides. According to the report, swine flu cases in Turkey reached a peak in the last week of November and have been on the decline since.
