The interruption of some cancer medications in pharmacies exacerbates patients’ suffering and calls into question the Ministry of Health and Social Protection

Agadir 24 | Agadir24

Cancer patients in a number of Moroccan cities have been suffering from the lack of availability of a set of basic medications prescribed to them by doctors in pharmacies, for about three months.

This problem portends a deterioration in the health condition of these patients, after they traveled to various pharmacies in their cities and beyond, hoping to find the desired medications, which they use on a daily basis to maintain the stability of their condition, as well as to ensure that the disease does not recur for those in the final stages of treatment.

The echo of this issue reached Parliament, where the Progress and Socialism Team in the House of Representatives sent a written question to the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Amine Tahraoui, asking him to reveal the measures that will be taken to end the plight of these patients.

In this context, the parliamentary team revealed that the issue of the shortage of vital medicines is one of the issues that concerns citizens, especially cancer patients and other chronic diseases, as patients’ complaints are increasing regarding the absence of medicines necessary for hormonal and chemotherapy treatment, such as “Tamoxifene Letrozol” that is missing in all pharmacies. The matter is Which negatively affects the course of treatment of these patients.

The team stressed that “hormonal treatment” is part of the necessary treatment protocol, stressing that the disappearance of medications and the inability of patients to purchase them puts them in a psychological crisis for several reasons, the most important of which is the doctors’ emphasis on the necessity of taking them daily and adhering to their timings, let alone not being able to use them at all.

Accordingly, the team asked about the measures taken by the Ministry to provide cancer medicines on a permanent basis in all public hospitals and pharmacies nationwide, and about the standards adopted to monitor and distribute cancer medicines in various regions of the Kingdom, especially in areas that suffer from an acute shortage at this level.

In addition, the team asked about the measures that the Ministry will take to ensure that cancer patients obtain the necessary medications for their treatment in a timely manner, especially in light of the high cost of these medications and their unavailability in public pharmacies.