18/05/2012 Lanzarote (BG) - According to the results of a recent report released by the Dirección General de Farmacia, medical expenditure on the Canary Islands was down 7.62% last month in comparison with the same month last year. The overall expenditure resulted in a total income of €37,589,477.93, representing a drop of €3.1million. The average expenditure per person of working age during the month was €6, down 10.44%, and €68 per pensioner, down 9.07%.
Coinciding with the decline in monthly expenditure there was also a drop of 8.13% in annual expenditure to date. This resulted in a total of €472.8million for the period between May 2011 and April 2012 in comparison to €514.6million for the same period during the previous 12 months. The report went on to reveal the number of prescriptions issued by the Canary Islands Health Service in April was 3,537,023, a rate of 0.72 prescriptions per person of working age and 5.86 prescriptions per pensioner.
The average cost per prescription fell by %9.53 compared to April 2011, from €11.75 to €10.63. The report also claims 3,002,943 electronic pensions were also issued during April accounting for %83.44 of prescriptions issued. The percentages per area were as follows: 83.18% in El Hierro, 86.56% in La Gomera, 85.95% in La Palma, 87.01% in Fuerteventura, 85.52% in Lanzarote, 86.47% in Tenerife and 79.66% in Gran Canaria.
