The availability of medicines in general

Medicines in Poland can fall under one of three different reimbursement systems:

• For basic medicines patients pay a fixed price up to a maximum of 0.5% of lowest salary,
• For special additional medicines, patients pay 30% or 50% of the cost,
• For all other medicines, patients pay the totality of the cost.

Hospital medicines are free of charge.[1]

The availability of Alzheimer treatments

In Poland, all anti-dementia drugs are available, but only donepezil and rivastigmine are part of the reimbursement system. Recently, generic versions of donepezil have become available in Poland and reimbursements is limited to those generic versions.

Treatment with acetylcholintesterase inhibitors is for people with MMSE scores between 26 and 10 and memantine for MMSE scores below 14.

There are no restrictions in Poland for the reimbursement of these treatments for people living alone or in nursing homes. Also, prescriptions can be made by any doctor whether for treatment initiation or treatment continuation.

[1] European Commission (2006): MISSOC – Mutual information system on social protection : Social protection in the Member States of the European Union, of the European Economic Area and in Switzerland : Comparative tables