SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Governing Council learned at its meeting on Thursday the report on pharmaceutical spending from the Canary Islands Health Service corresponding to January 2023, a monthly payment in which 4,819,961 prescriptions were issued, with an average cost of 11.37 euros, which which placed the pharmaceutical bill at 55,453,440.30 euros.
By Health Areas, Gran Canaria issued 2,131,464 prescriptions last month and Tenerife, 2,028,503, representing 86.3% of the total. They are followed by those of Lanzarote, with 244,534; La Palma, with 187,827, Fuerteventura, with 160,339; La Gomera, with 45,387, and El Hierro, with 21,907.
Regarding the average expense per prescription, of 11.37 euros, it decreased by 2.39% compared to January 2022. The highest average expense was registered in the La Gomera Health Area, with 12.61 euros, and the lowest in Fuerteventura, with 10.85 euros, although the greatest percentage decrease was registered in El Hierro, with a decrease of 2.94%, going from 11.58 to 11.24 euros in the reference period.
COMMUNICATION TO THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH
The General Administration of the State establishes that, in order to standardize the information criteria of all the Autonomous Communities, the pharmaceutical expenditure that is communicated monthly to the Ministry of Health does not include the invoicing of dietotherapeutic products or the amount resulting from the application of the Decree-law 1/2020, of urgent measures regulating aid for the acquisition of medicines financed by the National Health System (SNS) for people who have the status of Social Security pensioners and their beneficiaries, whose annual income is less than 18,000 euros.
In accordance with these criteria, the amount of the pharmaceutical expenditure of the SCS for the month of January that will be communicated to the Ministry amounts to 52,918,401.23 euros.
