Ash warned: This is what will happen to doctors if they reduce the dosage of drugs for cancer patients

December 5, 2021   

The Israeli Lung Cancer Association warned the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash, that the unprecedented approval given to the Clalit Health Insurance Fund to reduce doses of drugs for lung and skin cancer patients could result in the doctors being charged with a criminal offense and also being sued in civil lawsuits. The vaccine for children aged 5-11 is recommended by doctors: a special response for parents It's unimaginable: injury, hunger, and thirst • So how should mice be caught? Everyone adopts one vaccinated person: Have you already convinced a friend, neighbor, or relative? This was reported this morning (Sunday) by Ran Reznik, a commentator and health correspondent for Israel Hayom. This is a criminal offense of administering a drug in violation of the legally prescribed dosage, as well as medical malpractice claims that may be filed against them and the health funds. The extraordinary warning was issued following the special discussion held last Tuesday in the Knesset Health Committee on the unprecedented approval of Prof. Nachman Esh to the General Health Insurance Fund to comprehensively dictate to oncologists to give lung and skin cancer patients reduced doses of expensive drugs that are fully budgeted for in the drug basket. This is in contrast to the recommendations of a professional committee that the Ministry of Health itself established, in contrast to the legal registration of the drug in the Ministry of Health and the dosage listed in the drug basket, and despite sharp criticism from some of the country's top oncologists. In a reasoned legal opinion, Attorney Dr. Matan Gutman warned on behalf of the association that the approval given by Prof. Esh is "illegal and unconstitutional and is an unprecedented position and a blatant and prohibited intervention in the discretion of the treating physician, in illegally granting permission to the health insurance fund to deviate from the principle of registration stipulated in the Pharmacists' Ordinance." Attorney Gutman further wrote that this is "the creation of a Discrimination between patients from different health insurance funds, ignoring the position of the professionals and granting permission to combine economic considerations in the provision of health services that have already been included in the health basket, and have an approved budgetary source." The Ministry of Health stated in response: "The draft circular from the director general of the ministry was formulated by the professionals in the Ministry of Health and after receiving an opinion from a professional committee appointed for this matter. The attached opinion will be examined and weighed together with the other comments to the draft circular." Clalit stated in response: "An independent committee that included senior oncologists in Israel and the heads of the Ministry of Health determined, after intensive and thorough staff work, that both methods should be permitted based on weight and in a fixed dosage." It was further stated that "all studies on the drug prior to its registration were conducted on a weight-based dosage basis. A subcommittee of the Ministry of Health determined that the drug manufacturer effectively forced the use of doses that are double the 100 mg dose when it removed 50 mg ampoules from the market. "The Ministry of Health published a draft circular that supports the general position and states that the health insurance fund has the right and even the obligation to determine a medical treatment policy that is binding on the medical teams, including its right to determine treatment regimens and drug dosages, while determining an informed medical policy that is based on solid professional principles.".