The persons operated on colon for the first time will receive free colostomy bags called pouches. The Oncological Institute bought 170,000 such bags for this year with the money allocated by the National Health Insurance Company, IPN reports, quoting the Ministry of Health.
The pouches will be distributed to national health centers and will be given to patients based on the prescription of the family doctor. The persons admitted at the Oncological Institute will take pouches from the institution’s drugstore. Each patient will receive by 20 colostomy bags that will be enough for three months. The bags are not for single use and can be thus reused.
Until now the cost of colostomy bags wasn’t covered with money from health insurance funds. The patients had to buy them or to ask charity organizations to provide them with such pouches. A single use pouch costs 40 to 60 lei. The bags are replaced at least two times a day. Thus, a person had to pay over 2,000 lei a month for collection pouches.
The colostomy bags are used permanently or temporarily to collect body waste. Currently, over 1,000 persons need such bags.
