COPD patients ask to be given medications without reference to disability

The All-Russian Union of Patients (VSP) has proposed to give drugs free of charge to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without reference to the status of "disabled". The organization sent such a letter to the government.

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"Currently, patients have the right to receive preferential medications from the budgets of federal and regional benefits if they have the status of "disabled", when it is rarely possible to return to normal professional activity. People with severe stage of the disease (53% of patients) lose an average of eight to nine years of life expectancy. Within five years after the first exacerbation, only 40% remain alive," the appeal says.

Every second patient with COPD is hospitalized. The VSP noted that this could have been avoided if a significant proportion of patients had received effective drug therapy on time and free of charge. The organization also stressed that modern drugs have a positive therapeutic effect in 75-85% of cases.

The direct cost of COPD treatment per year is 25-40 thousand rubles or more, Sergey Avdeev, the chief freelance specialist and pulmonologist at the Ministry of Health, told Izvestia. The main therapy for COPD patients with and without disabilities is two— and three–component inhaled combination drugs.

"Patients without the status of "disabled" are forced to purchase medicines at their own expense. Not everyone has the opportunity to pay for treatment out of pocket. But it is not doctors who make the decision to recognize a patient as disabled, but specialists at the Bureau of medical and social expertise. Most often, they assign this status to patients when they have respiratory failure and other complications characteristic of COPD. That is, not at an early stage, but with a moderate and severe course of the disease," Avdeev explained.

He added that disability is not awarded to all people with moderate condition equally. According to the pulmonologist, some of these patients remain without this status during inspections by specialists from the Bureau of Medical and Social Expertise.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Treatment — light: patients with COPD without disability ask for medications