Around 330 medicines are currently not available in Germany, including children’s medicines such as fever and cough syrups. Drugs for adults are also affected, such as cancer drugs and antibiotics. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to fight the bottlenecks with new financial incentives. Nevertheless, GPs and pharmacists expect a persistent shortage of medicines in the coming months.
“The measures now being discussed will only help to a limited extent in general practitioner care in the short term,” said Nicola Buhlinger-Göpfarth, deputy federal chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners Rheinische Post. “The delivery bottlenecks can be felt very clearly in general practitioners’ practices. General practitioners now have to invest a lot of time in order to switch medications, if this is at all possible.”
The North Rhine Pharmacists’ Association also expects long-lasting delivery problems with medicines. “It will take many months before the supply situation improves. We assume that the supply problems will continue in 2023 and that other medicines will be affected,” said association leader Thomas Preis of the newspaper. “New drugs are becoming scarce every day: there are currently no drugs for desensitizing allergy sufferers, they should only come in May – when the pollen season has already started – but then you can no longer desensitize.” Lauterbach’s plans are just “a drop in the ocean”.
Lauterbach wants to better secure the range of important medicines, especially for children, against supply bottlenecks. Key points for a law include new price rules. This should make deliveries more economically attractive for providers. The minister said on ZDF on Tuesday evening: “We have seen the problem for a long time. We have to have some of the important active ingredients produced in Europe again. And the only thing that helps is that the health insurance companies then have to buy from Europe.”
The President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, called on Lauterbach in the Rheinische Post on allowing higher prices only for children’s medicines that are really supply-relevant. In contrast, the CSU health expert Stephan Pilsinger criticized in the Augsburg General: “Unfortunately, the measures do not go far enough either.” Of the more than 330 medicines affected by bottlenecks, only a few groups of medicines such as children’s medicines, cancer medicines or antibiotics would be covered by the planned measures.
The German Association of Cities appeals to doctors to open their practices longer
The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices sees one reason for the current shortage in the fact that some pharmacies and wholesalers have overstocked their warehouses and medicines were not available elsewhere. It was to be assumed that there would be a distribution problem, it said a few days ago. Another reason is that there are currently so many respiratory infections in children, which increases the demand. Pharmacies and unions also see economic pressure and production in low-cost countries as factors.
In view of the overcrowding in clinics, the German Association of Cities appealed to resident doctors to keep their practices open longer. “Please consider keeping your practices open after 6 p.m., on Saturdays and Sundays and on public holidays,” said general manager Helmut Dedy to the newspapers of the Funke media group. In the case of simple illnesses, patients should dial the outpatient emergency care number of the resident doctors, 116117, and not the number 112 of the local rescue service. This is only for real emergencies.
In addition to corona, other respiratory diseases such as the RS virus infection in children are currently causing many serious infections and overloaded clinics. According to the German Hospital Society, almost every tenth clinic employee is currently ill himself.