Lisbon, Oct. 9, 2024 (Lusa) - The Diabetic Association of Portugal (APDP) said on Wednesday that the target of installing 2,500 automatic insulin pumps by the end of the year would not be met and insisted on the need to speed up the process.
The president of the APDP, José Manuel Boavida, who was heard today in the parliamentary Health Committee, said that the system should go through pharmacies, pointing out that public tenders delay the whole process and lamented the current situation.
It is estimated that there are around 30,000 people with type 1 diabetes and around half of them want to have automatic pumps, he said, emphasising that "the tenders don't allow for any savings".
He used the current situation—in which one of the bidders in the public tender for the pumps has filed a lawsuit in court, blocking access to the devices, according to today's Jornal de Notícias—to explain that it won't even be possible to fulfill the 2,500 pumps planned to be installed by the end of this year.
"It was planned to cover 5,000 people, but since the tender was only launched for 2,500, it's only the end of the year [2023], and we've arrived at this ridiculous situation. Of the 2,500, 450 will be placed, most to replace the end-of-life pumps of people who have switched to old syringes and pens," he explained.
Insisting on the need to speed up the whole process, he says that the association has asked the centres to remain responsible for fitting pumps and "provide sufficient qualifications", an idea with which the Ministry of Health has agreed.
However, he pointed out that the SPMS and Infarmed have encountered "a lot of resistance" to having a system that is "truly agile and capable of responding to the needs of these people, half of whom are children".
He also said that "choice by catalogue" (rather than public tender) would be another way of speeding up the process, pointing out that the British public health service used precisely this option.
He pointed to the experience already gained in the 35 or so pump placement centres across the country and said: "massification will come in the next few years, as will the facilitation of pumps".
According to today's JN, diabetes treatment centres are informing patients that they won't be able to fit the new automatic insulin pumps on the scheduled dates because one of the bidders in the public tender has filed a lawsuit in court that has blocked National Health Service hospitals and the Portuguese Diabetic Protection Association from accessing the pumps of the runner-up in lot 2 of the public tender.
This was yet another setback in a process that has seen a number of delays. In June, Infarmed temporarily suspended the marketing of insulin pumps from the Chinese company Medtrum, which had won lots 1 and 2 of the tender (around 2,000 out of a total of 2,442 pumps), due to a warning of an increased risk of hypoglycaemia made by a British association of diabetologists and some incidents recorded in Portugal.
After this, the treatment centres could access lot 3 (466 pumps) since, to break the deadlock, they were allowed to use the competitor that came second in the first two lots (Vital Aire), explains JN.
The first lot to be unblocked was lot 2. However, according to JN, the competitor was excluded from the tender for exceeding the base value (Medtronic) and went to court to halt the process, which led to the current situation.
"We hope that the SPMS [Shared Services of the Ministry of Health] will challenge the situation and enforce the right to health," he said.
Questioned by MPs, José Manuel Boavida explained that patients were not left without access to treatment but had to do so using old and less practical systems (syringes and pens).
He also considered it essential to reactivate the compulsory register, explaining that the number of patients is calculated by extrapolating average insulin doses or estimates.
Type 1 diabetes reduces life expectancy by 17 years when diagnosed in childhood.
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