22.03.2024 – 12:19
North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists
Düsseldorf (ots)
Since the beginning of the year, pink recipes have largely been a thing of the past. Patients receive the digital e-prescription. “We observe that many people are overwhelmed by this,” reports Dr. Armin Hoffmann, President of the North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists. “On paper you could see directly what was prescribed – take notes or take a photo of the prescription.” Now many patients don’t even know what has been prescribed, even though in theory, with the app, everything works wonderfully.
There’s only a problem in practice – but it’s huge: many people haven’t installed the app because the link to the health insurance company is anything but user-friendly. Not every patient received a PIN from the health insurance company; The ways to redeem the prescription are varied, confusing and complex. The easiest way – by simply inserting your health insurance card at the pharmacy – remains the best. “It is only in the pharmacy that patients receive the best advice on prescribed medicines and self-medication,” adds Kathrin Luboldt, Vice President of the Chamber. “We take care and leave no one uncared for – especially when it comes to dealing with delivery bottlenecks.”
“Only local pharmacies ensure drug therapy safety. The only way to ensure that the patient actually gets what is intended for them is to check the prescription by specialist staff in the local pharmacy,” says Kathrin Luboldt and continues : “We have become aware that in very rare cases there can be transmission errors in the systems involved and that the medication displayed does not correspond to the medication actually prescribed. For example, it happened to me that a medication for high blood pressure was prescribed – but the system was “I wanted to dispense a urological medicine. Only through my personal intervention could incorrect medication be avoided.” Mindfulness in the local pharmacy – it is still indispensable.
Many board members also expressed criticism of the ongoing technical problems. “The fact that servers constantly crash, regardless of the service provider, is an absolute disgrace and endangers people’s supplies,” summarized Dr. Hoffmann summarizes the critical mood of the pharmacists on the board.
The presidium and board at Gematik, health insurance companies and the Federal Ministry of Health see a huge communication deficit: “Often pharmacies cannot provide their patients at all because there is no valid e-prescription yet. This is because practices use the convenience signature and only e-prescriptions Sign digitally once or twice a day. That would be like a doctor asking patients to come to an autograph session every evening. The fact that practice teams and doctors don’t know this is absolutely unacceptable. BMG, health insurance companies and Gematik are starting one Field tests with technology that is still in its infancy and leave those involved, especially doctors and pharmacists, to find the errors in the system and its operation. The sufferers are the patients, who can only rarely understand the complex connections and are responsible for it Nor are we interested. We health professionals, doctors and pharmacists, are incompetent – even though others are responsible for these problems. And almost all of them are based in Berlin.”
About us: North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists
As a corporation under public law, the North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists (AKNR) is responsible for the professional self-administration of pharmacists who work or live in the administrative districts of Cologne and Düsseldorf. It represents the interests of over 12,000 chamber members who work in public pharmacies, hospitals, science, industry and administration or in the Bundeswehr. The local pharmacy takes on a sovereign task: providing people with medicines and medical supplies safely, close to home, 365 days a year, around the clock, supported by the healthcare profession.
Press contact:
Jens A. Krömer
Head of press and public relations
North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists
Poststr. 4
40213 Düsseldorf
Tel: 0211 8388119
Fax: 0211 8388299
Original content from: North Rhine Chamber of Pharmacists, transmitted by news aktuell