There are always problems with e-prescriptions. This regularly causes frustration not only among patients and doctors. Customers are now running away from local pharmacies because people with statutory health insurance cannot redeem their e-prescriptions in the pharmacy. The German Pharmacists Association (DAV) is therefore calling on the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) to “immediately resolve the failures and grievances in the e-prescription system”. Likewise, in the event of “relevant errors,” “a crisis team must be set up” immediately and the “expertise of the affected specialist groups” must be involved, according to DAV chairman Hans-Peter Hubmann.
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If this does not succeed by Easter at the latest, the pharmacies want to advocate for a second replacement procedure “in order to maintain long-term trust in digital solutions,” according to a press release from the DAV. Although the central e-prescription server usually works well, this does not help if other systems fail regularly. This is an “unsustainable situation that must be resolved immediately by the architects of this system – the BMG and Gematik,” criticizes Hubmann.
E-prescription structure not stable
“Our patients need a stable, quick and uncomplicated supply of medicines. But the e-prescription structure set up by the Federal Ministry of Health and Gematik does not currently meet these requirements,” says the DAV chairman. The DAV has no influence on the technical problems in the pharmacies. “In addition to delivery bottlenecks, the pharmacy teams now have to deal with patients’ frustration every day because e-prescriptions cannot be delivered.”
The Cardlink process for online pharmacies, for which the BMG recently decided on the specifications at the Gematik shareholders' meeting, threatens pharmacies with further losses. As early as 2017, the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations drew attention to the decline in pharmacies with a signature campaign and called for mail order medicines to be limited to over-the-counter medications.
(mack)