For the Association of Pediatricians, it is a “poor indictment”: A number of drugs are currently not available in German pharmacies. The background is both high demand and problems within the industry. Health Minister Lauterbach promises countermeasures.
Because of the bottlenecks in fever juice and other medicines, especially for children, there are calls for emergency government measures. “It’s an indictment that medicines as simple as fever syrup are often no longer available,” said the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, Thomas Fischbach, of the “Rheinische Post”. The situation in the children’s clinics and practices is also still precarious.
A wave of respiratory diseases is currently affecting children. According to Fischbach, this leads to a very high demand for antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen or paracetamol. Fischbach reported on “desperate parents” in the practices. “There are too few suppliers of such agents because the fixed price regulation has led to a migration of production to low-wage countries such as India and China,” he said. There are now supply chain problems there, which in turn lead to supply bottlenecks.
The association president criticized the plans for changes in the law presented by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach as coming too late. “We now need a procurement campaign pushed by politicians in order to quickly get fever juice, certain antibiotics and other preparations for small children that have become rare in an emergency, as was the case at the beginning of the corona pandemic.”
The CDU health expert Tino Sorge also called for a state offensive to buy children’s medicines. “Before the end of the year there must be a procurement summit by the federal and state governments, in which immediate measures for this winter will be coordinated,” said the health policy spokesman for the Union faction of the news portal t-online.
Green health expert Janosch Dahmen warned of the dramatic consequences of bottlenecks in children’s medicines. “At the moment, almost every second prescription that is to be redeemed in pharmacies for the treatment of respiratory diseases is affected by delivery bottlenecks,” said Dahmen t-online. That is “extremely worrying”.
Lauterbach reiterated that action is being taken against delivery bottlenecks for medicines not only for children. A corresponding legislative initiative is to be presented next week, which will deal with short-term measures. He also promised support for the sometimes overcrowded pediatric practices and children’s wards in clinics. The budgets would be suspended, additional services for paediatricians would be paid for.
If the measures are not sufficient, planned interventions for adults could be suspended in order to ensure the care of children. “We will not allow the children who gave up so much in the pandemic not to get the care they need now,” said Lauterbach in Berlin.
The President of the Federal Union of German Pharmacists’ Associations, Gabriele Regina Overwiening, told the “Spiegel” that a total of 300 to 400 drugs are currently difficult or impossible to deliver, including for adults. A quick improvement is not in sight.
In a current hour requested by the left, the Bundestag debated the situation in pediatric medicine. The left-wing health expert Ates Günipar Lauterbach accused Lauterbach of not wanting to move away from the principle of commercialization in pediatric medicine, contrary to assertions. “The profit system has no place in the care of children,” he said in the debate. “They don’t break with the system,” he criticized.
Due to the high workload in pediatric practices, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) extended the period for the preventive medical check-ups U6 to U9 for one to six-year-old children. The postponed early detection examinations can be made up for by June 30 next year.
