I can’t find cardiovascular drugs in pharmacies

■ Cem YILDIRIM

As the drug crisis spread across the country, drug shortages in all areas that would pose a risk to human health, from the common cold to cardiovascular drugs, reached an all-time high. Health and Social Services Workers’ Union (SES) Co-Chairman Hüsnü Yıldırım spoke with Sözcü about the shortage of medicines and the situation of recently closed hospitals.

PHARMACEUTICAL FACTORY CLOSED

Stating that the shortage of medicines has reached its peak, Yıldırım said that they are faced with the absence of medicines for the common cold, saying: “There are no medicines for hypertension, chemotherapy, colds, hormones and cardiovascular diseases . “These are important medicines for human health,” he said. Noting that the pharmaceutical factory of the Social Insurance Institution, which provides medicines to patients, was closed, Yıldırım said, “Drug monopolies in the country were allowed to circulate freely. They have come to determine the exchange rates and the prices of medicines at their whim”.

It appeared as a black hole.

Hüsnü Yıldırım, who stated that the hospitals established with the sweat of workers in the past, became the rental areas of private companies, pointed out that the city hospitals came to the fore. “Today, the city hospitals have turned into black holes,” Yıldırım said.