Visitors to Murmansk Polyclinic No. 1 at 65 Lobova Street have complained about long waits to collect subsidized prescription medicines. The local outlet Meditsinsky Vestnik reported the complaints on November 3. Patients said the waits were prolonged and some visitors were being served without waiting in line.
The complaints followed changes to the regional system for storing and dispensing subsidized drugs. Since October 1, the medicines have been stored at a state-run warehouse and dispensed on prescription by medical facilities instead of a commercial operator. Murmansk Deputy Governor and Health Minister Dmitry Panychev had earlier acknowledged organizational problems in transferring the medicines and attributed delays to the need to register them in the inventory system.
Panychev said the commercial operator had transferred more than 500 types of medicine and almost 500,000 packages to the region. Processing the incoming inventory was still under way in late October.
Regional authorities announced plans to change dispensing hours, open a hotline and enlist volunteers to deliver medicines to people's homes. According to the Health Ministry, the Murmansk region has 27 distribution points for subsidized medicines, five of them in the city of Murmansk.