The CCSS has been making strides towards making prescription medicines more accessible. While in the past, we had to go to hospitals in city centers to wait on long lines to receive medications, they are now being offered at some local ebais clinics so we don’t have to spend money and time to get them.
26 million prescriptions have been dispatched so far in ebais and Health Areas, closer to where the patients live. The waiting time, however, went from hours to days because of administration errors.
While the initiative sounds great there are details to work out. The ebais often don’t have enough room to store all the medications. In other cases, they are not receiving them in a timely manner. Patients have complained of getting partially filled prescriptions.
The ebais in San Sebastián processes 34,000 prescriptions per month with personnel and space meant to meet a demand of 20,000. It’s hard for them to estimate the need and the CCSS has not given as much medication as requested.
