The doctor gives them a prescription, they take it to the pharmacy and suddenly it says: not available. This situation has increased in Austrian pharmacies in recent weeks. Krone.tv presenter Raphaela Scharf spoke with the Vice President of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, Mag.pharm. Raimund Podroschko spoke in the current issue of the health magazine.
Asked about the bottlenecks in the supply of medicines, Podroschko emphasized in the GeMa-Talk that pharmacists succeed in “95 percent of all cases” in reaching a solution together with doctor and patient. Yes, “antibiotics are doing very badly at the moment,” admits the vice president of the Chamber of Pharmacy, but the good thing is “that we are on good terms with the doctors.”
Podroschko mentions various ways in which pharmacies can find a solution to medicine shortages: On the one hand, a medicine can be produced according to a magisterial prescription. Then there is the possibility of dispensing a preparation with the same or a similar active substance. According to the vice-chairman of the Chamber of Pharmacists, the latter is increasingly the case. Thanks to e-prescriptions, patients can find an alternative solution in the pharmacy without going to the doctor. Another possibility: “I can also call a nearby pharmacy to see if there is anything left there. And if it all fails and there is no other way, I can always try to get something from abroad”. In an interview with krone.tv presenter Raphaela Scharf, Podroschko can reassure him that there is still no supply bottleneck in Austria.
Pharmacy room checklist for blackout provision
Keyword blackout: here the vice president of the Chamber of Pharmacists recommends having medicines at home for two months. “This is very important, especially for patients on long-term medications. Because you don’t know what can really happen in a blackout.” What medicines should you have at home? In any case antipyretic and analgesic medication, Podroschko also refers to the checklist of the Chamber of Pharmacists. This can be found on the website of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists under the title “Home Pharmacy Emergencies”. With this checklist you can first check what’s in the medicine cabinet at home – and then get personal advice from your pharmacist whether your stock is sufficient and what else needs to be added in case of a blackout.
Important pilot project medication analysis
Some pharmacies now also offer a medication analysis: this is a pilot project of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists together with the Med Uni Vienna. A “personal heart project” for Podroschko, he explains in a conversation with Raphaela Scharf. The point is that the doctor’s therapy is “carried out as well as possible” and “the drugs are tolerated as well as possible,” according to the expert.
The pilot project comes at the right time, because so-called polypharmacy is a significant problem in the Austrian health system. About a quarter of people over the age of 60 are on five or more medications at the same time due to different underlying diseases – that’s more than 500,000 people. Many patients are often overwhelmed by the abundance of medicines and easily lose track of what they have been prescribed and the dosage in which to take it. This can have serious health consequences. This is where the medication analysis comes into play.
Podroschko, Vice-President of the Chamber of Pharmacy, concludes: “The better a patient knows his medication, the better it works!”
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Source: Krone
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