Medicines: Alert from pharmacists for deficiencies in August

Their concern that for another August, several will be missing from the shelves of the pharmacies, expressed members of the . According to the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association (EPS), pharmaceutical companies, which close every August for about 20 days due to the summer permits, cause the reduction of prescription drugs that were in short supply anyway. “The problem is localised to companies whose medicines are already elliptical, as we all know the quantities available by the MAHs to pharmaceutical stores and pharmacies are constantly declining, not covering the monthly requirements arising from the prescription of these drugs. So you realize that with the summer closure of these companies and the experience of previous years, in the first ten days of August the pharmaceutical stores will not have sufficient quantities to distribute and the pharmacies will be unable to serve the needs of the Greek Patients.” In an open letter to all companies, the Pharmacopoeia stress the need to remain open to the departments supplying medicinal products to the pharmaceutical stores, in order to “to achieve the proper functioning of pharmacies as far as possible and to ensure that patients continue to be treated seamlessly”. “In the struggle we all have to make sure that patients continue treatment, you should also contribute by ensuring the supply of the quantities of medicines necessary for the month of August”, notes the CPMP and adds that the solutions proposed by some pharmaceutical companies to keep an emergency department open, does not solve the problem in any case, because it concerns the coverage of individual cases rather than the easy and extensive supply of pharmaceutical stores and pharmaceuticals. “All the logistics chain links should realise that we should fight against the European problem of deficiencies and therefore, as the majority of the pharmacies remain open in August, providing high quality primary health services for the Greek patient, it is also necessary for the MAHs to keep the supply departments open, for the proper functioning of pharmacies and pharmacies and the seamless service of the Greek patient,” the pharmacists end up in their letter.