SLOVAK health insurance companies will begin issuing booklets to their clients to record the drugs they are prescribed, the Pravda daily reported.
The insurers will initially distribute 15,000 booklets to chronically ill patients who take various drugs over longer periods. The patients will be required to carry the booklets with them every time they visit a doctor. Doctors will record the drugs they prescribe, while pharmacists will countersign the entries to confirm the issue of the medicine.
One insurance company, Sidéria Istota, has been using the booklets for five years already. The company's officials say they are an important tool to protect patients from harmful combinations of prescription drugs.
The only health insurance company to reject the booklet plan is Apollo. Company director Zoltán Pivoda told Pravda that the utility of the booklets had not been clearly established.
"Drug booklets are one form of health documentation. However, all data on patients can be found in correctly maintained health records stored by individual doctors," he said.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
