Buying prescription drugs via the Internet is a parliamentary idea supported by the Ministry of Health. The point is to help people with disabilities. Is the mail order sale of drugs really a good solution?
People with severe disabilities will be able to buy prescription drugs online. It is assumed by the amendment to the act on the information system in health care and some other acts.
Deputy Minister of Health Janusz Cieszyński explained that it will only be possible if a doctor or nurse prescribes an e-prescription drug. – In this way we meet the problems of people with disabilities – he said. He indicated that people with severe disabilities will not have to go to the pharmacy. They will order a prescription drug online and a courier will deliver it to their home. He stressed that, in accordance with the regulations, the online dispensing of e-prescriptions will only be possible in pharmacies in Poland.
Cieszyński responding to the concerns expressed by the pharmacy community that the online sale of drugs carries many risks, including related to the export of medicines abroad, he indicated that thanks to the system that supports e-prescriptions, all data related to the purchase of medicines are available. “You can easily see what doctor prescribes how many drugs, which pharmacy sells large amounts of drugs to one person, and so on,” he said.
The deputy minister of health assured that matters related to the distribution, transport and storage of drugs would be regulated by regulations. Prescriptions of people with disabilities will be additionally marked – and only such prescriptions will be able to be fulfilled via the Internet.
The e-prescription drug sales system will not be extended to all patients as the current system is not prepared for such a change.
Minister Łukasz Szumowski recalled that in all countries where such a solution was decided, it was accompanied by enormous tensions. – We understand the arguments of pharmacists that introducing the possibility of selling Rx drugs for everyone would cause big changes in the system. We are not ready to change the system by 180 degrees. We want to see how this solution will work – said Deputy Minister Cieszyński, adding that although the Ministry of Health focuses on pharmaceutical care as a model solution for most patients, in the case of disabled people, easier access to medicines is more important.