Pharmacists warn the population: the situation is very complicated because the prescriptions do not work

Recommendations made by SAM cannot be implemented

Kristina Nemaniūtė-Gagė, President of the Lithuanian Pharmacy Association, told Delfi that the failures were recorded on Monday night, at approximately 7 p.m.

“So it is natural that the situation is very difficult for both patients and pharmacists.” People who go to the pharmacy generally expect to get the medicine they need here and now. At that time, pharmacies face a great challenge, because although SAM provided several options on how to care for patients, these are only theoretical possibilities that do not work in practice, “said K. Nemaniūtė-Gagė.

The SAM provided several recommendations on how to behave for patients and pharmacies. According to SAM’s press release, it is planned to return to paper prescriptions for a short time or to allow the purchase of a small amount of the required medication in an emergency.

“If patients can wait, they are asked to come buy or pick up drugs the next day. If the patient urgently needs medication and there is no chance to wait the next day, they plan to offer to see a doctor for a paper prescription. If the patient does not have a passport for reimbursable medications, the reimbursable medication or MPP may be prescribed on an exceptional prescription form, the SAM said in a press release.

– In the event that a patient urgently needs medication and there is no possibility of prescribing a prescription on paper, a small amount of the prescription medication can be offered that can be purchased without a prescription. If it is not possible to ensure that the patient’s prescription drug has been used before, pharmacists can contact the treating doctor and ask them to confirm that the drug has actually been prescribed. “

However, pharmacists evaluate such alternatives negatively. According to K. Nemaniūtė-Gagė, it is almost impossible to fulfill these alternatives.

“For example, it is advisable to dispense a prescription medication without a prescription, but the pharmacist must ensure that the patient has taken the medication in question. Contacting the patient’s treating physician can be not only difficult, but often even impossible. Even if we contact, the doctor will also not be able to log into e-health and view the patient’s treatment history. The offer to send patients back to doctors to write prescriptions on paper is also not being implemented, because it simply is not possible for patients to go to doctors quickly, ”said K. Nemaniūtė-Gagė.

Patients also need to be reassured

According to the interlocutor, at this time, pharmacists should even try to reassure some people who have come to buy medicines. Also, there are medications that a person simply cannot wait.

“The patients are really very angry. If we are talking about older people who have come to the pharmacy to buy free medicines, they usually plan their arrival in advance and sometimes it is a big challenge for them. When a pharmacist tells you that unfortunately we cannot serve, there are difficult situations, the pharmacist has to reassure this person. There are certain medications that a person really needs them in the here and now and cannot wait like insulin. But neither can we dispense some medicines without any document, because for some it can become a great poison, – said K. Nemaniūtė-Gagė.

– The situation is very complicated. Imagine the theoretical possibility of managing to dispense a patient with a prescription medication, although this is almost impossible. The pharmacist is serving, but the system is working again tomorrow, and shows that the patient has not purchased any medications. The next time a person comes, they may not remember what they drank and what they didn’t drink. Consequently, the pharmacist will again have to sell the drugs that will be shown on e. system. How will we handle these flows? There are many problems and really very difficult. Always interrupted e. Cheers, we have no other plan for what to do. “

Laura Gogienė, the director of Eurovaistinė, announced that 99.7% of prescriptions, so far, medicines are only sold to those who have a paper version of the prescription.

According to L. Gogienė, the most difficult thing is to explain to the elderly that it is a systemic failure.

“Prescriptions are generally prescribed for the treatment of serious chronic diseases, so we cannot provide an alternative, certain over-the-counter medications. There are times when we can offer medications to treat pain or other ailments, but we cannot serve e-prescriptions. It is unfortunate that customers are also unable to obtain the paper version, as access to medical institutions remains difficult, and patients are generally consulted by phone. We are waiting for the time when the system will work again, then we will inform those who have left their contacts that we can assist them ”, says the representative of Eurovaistinė.

According to the pharmacist, this is not the first system failure, but such signs have been observed for a long time. L. Gogienė reports that, on average, he receives 8,000 clients with electronic prescriptions per day.