In view of the shortage of medicines in Germany, Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) is calling for the requirements for the production of medicines by pharmacies to be relaxed. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) should lower the legal hurdles so that pharmacies themselves can produce fever juices in stock without proof of frequent medical prescriptions, Holetschek announced on Tuesday. For this, the drug law must be changed. Pharmacists could produce up to 100 packs of fever juice per day, said the CSU politician.
About 300 medicines are currently not available, including children’s medicines such as fever and cough syrups. Drugs for adults are also affected, such as cancer drugs and antibiotics. Lauterbach wants to fight the bottlenecks with new financial incentives. When purchasing medicines, the price should no longer be the most important factor in the future. This emerges from a key issues paper for a legislative project on which the Southgerman newspaper had reported first. The paper contains several measures. For example, the price rules for important medicines for children are to be relaxed.
Lauterbach wants to improve the supply of children’s medicines by having health insurance companies pay more for such medicines with immediate effect. On Tuesday morning he said on ARD: “We have to remove these medicines for children from the fixed prices so that they can also be sold at higher prices. I will react today by instructing the health insurance companies to pay 50 percent more than this fixed amount. “
The Bavarian Minister of Health has other suggestions for countering the shortage of medicines. He also thinks of the use of the Bundeswehr: If necessary, they should help with the delivery and procurement of medicines. “We must leave no stone unturned in order to stabilize the supply of important medicines such as fever syrups for children in the short term and unbureaucratically over the Christmas period,” says Holetschek.
In addition, Lauterbach should check whether the federal government should determine a supply shortage. That sounds very bureaucratic, said Holetschek. “But the official statement would give the federal and state governments more room to maneuver to react to the current situation.” For example, medicinal products that are not authorized or registered in Germany can be placed on the market for a limited period of time.
Doctors’ representatives fear even worse shortages over Christmas and New Year’s Eve
In addition to corona infections, flu viruses and RS viruses in children are currently causing many diseases throughout Germany. Doctors’ representatives fear even worse bottlenecks in pediatric medicine over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. “At the moment we are observing that infections with the RS virus are declining, but more and more children are now coming with the flu and other respiratory diseases,” said the President of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Jörg Dötsch, the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Due to the personnel situation on the holidays, the situation in clinics and practices will be even more tense than it is now.”
The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, said: “I assume that this acute crisis in pediatric medicine will last until February.” The number of cases of infection is expected to continue to rise in the coming weeks, not only among children but also among adults. “At the same time, the children’s hospitals come under additional pressure over the holidays due to the reduced duty rosters – especially when many pediatricians in private practice close their practices during this time or reduce the office hours.”