Pharmacists' Day calls for immediate help against drug delivery bottlenecks!

Pharmacists' Day calls for immediate help against drug delivery bottlenecks!

The current supply bottlenecks for medicines are a topic of great importance that was put on the agenda at the general meeting of the German Pharmacists' Day in Munich. A unanimously passed proposal from the North Rhine Pharmacists' Association calls for local pharmacies to be strengthened. This measure is intended to ensure that patients can be provided with the medication they need more quickly and efficiently. The aim is to avoid delays in therapy caused by the unavailability of medicines.

Pharmacies are faced with the challenge of not only providing medication, but also coping with increased communication requirements. The application emphasizes that pharmacists should be given more freedom of action when exchanging unavailable medicines. It is important to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles in order to stop the “carousel” between doctors and pharmacies that many patients find themselves in when their medication cannot be delivered. It is suggested that the exchange rules from the pandemic period be reinstated or even further developed in order to ensure smooth supply.

Current challenges in the pharmacy landscape

Statistics from the Pharmacy Climate Index 2024, which is based on a survey of 500 pharmacy owners, illustrate the drama of the situation. Over 80 percent of those surveyed say that delivery bottlenecks are among the biggest challenges in their everyday work. The majority of pharmacy teams invest between 10 and 40 hours weekly to manage these shortages. The biggest challenge here remains communication with patients, followed by consultations with doctors' practices and inquiries from wholesalers.

Pharmacy owners also have concerns about patient safety. They are particularly critical of the availability of antibiotics, which, according to 84 percent of those surveyed, are needed most urgently, followed by inhalants and antidiabetics. Despite the introduction of the Supply Bottleneck Act in 2023, there is no trend of improvement. On the contrary, more than half of those surveyed expressed the assessment that the effort required to deal with delivery bottlenecks has “increased significantly” since then.

In order to meet the additional challenges, appropriate financial compensation for pharmacies is also required. For this purpose, the delivery bottleneck allowance should be increased. In this way, support could be created for pharmacies, which often suffer from the burden of shortages and the necessary communication.

The urgency of this issue requires quick action. It remains to be seen how the legislature will respond to the demands and whether pharmacists will have less bureaucracy and more freedom in dealing with prescribed medicines in the future. Given the current survey results, it is clear that faster solutions to improve drug delivery are needed to put patient health first. That's why it's now more important than ever to understand the challenges in the pharmacy situation and take appropriate measures.

For more information and details on the current situation in pharmacies, visit the website www.abda.de referred.