site.btaPharmaceutical Union Accuses Medical Association of Misinterpreting Drug Movement Facts

The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union (BPU) on Friday accused the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) of misinterpreting facts about the movements of medicines in Bulgaria. In a statement, the BPU offered an explanation of the BMA's observation that 442 pharmacies have not handled electronic regular prescriptions for diabetes drugs and antibiotics since they became compulsory on October 16.

The BPU argued that the information in the pharmacy register changes every day as pharmacies go in and out of business. The organization put the number of currently operational pharmacies at 3,230, which is fewer than the BMA's estimate of 3,380. The total includes 198 hospital pharmacies which service patients in hospitals and do not dispense medicines on electronic prescriptions, and 72 pharmacies which are owned by assistant pharmacists and therefore have no right to dispense prescription medicines. Out of the remaining 2,960 pharmacies, 2,938 have handled electronic regular prescriptions, as the BMA acknowledged. This leaves only 22 pharmacies which have not handled electronic prescriptions, probably because they have not had patients with such prescriptions, the BPU said.

The BPU went on to explain why only 66% out of the 204,230 electronic prescriptions issued since October 16 have been used, and another 6.9% have been cancelled. The BPU speculated that many doctors may have made mistakes when prescribing drugs and therefore cancelled them. This may be because the BMA did not give guidelines to the doctors about how to make electronic prescriptions, the BPU said. Moreover, some patients have multiple versions of the same prescription. The correct prescription is used, and the rest remain unused. Some prescriptions are unusable - for example, the prescribed amount of a medicine is one pill instead of one pack, or the prescribed medication is unavailable on the market.

The fact that 66% of the electronic prescriptions were used is actually a success, according to the BPU.

As for the BMA's doubts about drug dispensing control, the BPU said that now there is a better way to exercise control. In the past, it was only possible to do it at the time of the offense (using the mystery customer method), and now drug dispensing can be controlled even retroactively.

The BPU commented that over the course of just two weeks digitization has exposed all deficiencies of the former analogue process. If paper prescriptions are reintroduced or if exceptions are made, the problem will be swept under the carpet, the organization warned. It expressed support for the Health Ministry's digitization effort.