In December 2022, the NTA, within the framework of its responsibilities and mission, conducted an audit, following a complaint by a private doctor, regarding the prescription, without his knowledge, of pharmaceutical preparations included in the list of narcotic/drug substances.
The audit focused on:
a) the data on the prescriptions’ registration and execution as recorded in the Electronic Prescription System of Social Security e-Government S.A. (IDIKA S.A.)
b) the investigation of persons, namely the complainant and the pharmacists in whose pharmacies the prescriptions were executed.
Findings of the audit carried out:
- A total of thirty-one (31) medicine prescriptions had been registered in the Electronic Prescription System of Social Security e-Government (IDIKA S.A.) with the name of the complainant without his knowledge, of which twenty-eight (28) prescriptions had been executed
- The prescribed active substances of the pharmaceutical preparations in question were subject to the provisions of law 3459/2006 (A103) on narcotic/drug substances
- The electronic registration of the prescriptions had been carried out by a doctor, who served as an auxiliary doctor (with medical specialty ‘General Medicine’), in a health unit of the 1st Health Region of Attica, with a fixed term employment contract under private law
- During the execution of those prescriptions by the pharmacies, the provisions relating to the identification of the patient for whom an electronic prescription has been registered were not applied
- 4% of these prescriptions were filled at pharmacies near the doctor’s home.
The audit report was forwarded:
a) To the National Organisation for Healthcare Services Provision and the Social Security e-Government S.A. (IDIKA S.A.) for actions within their competence regarding the security safeguards during the electronic registration and execution of drug prescriptions and
b) to the Athens Appeals Prosecutor's Office for the criminal evaluation of the findings.