The ministry had promised pharmacists interest-free loans from the state’s own society for structural and labor market development (GSA) for one year, the chamber and association told DAZ.online. The loans are limited to a maximum of 200,000 euros per holder. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the GSA is responsible for a wide range of state funding. However, Dr. Bernd Stahlhacke, Managing Director of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Chamber of Pharmacists, that the aid is linked to very strict conditions. The pharmacists concerned would first have to exhaust all financing options with their usual partners, including with increased interest rates. The pharmacists would have to prove this. They would also have to disclose their credit lines. If there is still a financial gap, the GSA will step in with the interest-free emergency loan.
Accordingly, the aim here is not to compensate for losses, but to prevent impending bankruptcies and thus possible gaps in the drug supply. It remains to be seen whether longer terms for an auxiliary loan are possible in such cases. The Chamber is not yet aware of any case in which a pharmacy damaged by the AvP bankruptcy has already received money from the GSA. The hurdles for this aid are apparently very high. But the basic possibility for support linked to strict conditions is a big difference to the reactions from Brandenburg.
Few people affected in Schleswig-Holstein
Compared to many other federal states, however, clearly fewer pharmacies in Schleswig-Holstein are affected by the AvP insolvency. At the online general meeting of the Schleswig-Holstein Pharmacists’ Association on October 24, association manager Dr. Thomas Friedrich, the association is aware of 18 affected pharmacies in the country. At the end of 2019 there were 636 public pharmacies in Schleswig-Holstein. Friedrich reported that the association is in close contact with other pharmacists’ associations because of the AvP insolvency.
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