Offenbach (dpa/lhe) – In the second year of the corona pandemic in 2021, Hessian pharmacies provided almost three million messenger services for prescribed prescriptions. The Hessian Association of Pharmacists reported that nine percent of all medicines prescribed by doctors were brought home to patients by employees. There were additional messenger services for medicines that were not prescribed. The number of messenger services has been recorded since April 2020 after the outbreak of the pandemic. In the first year of Corona, around eight percent of all prescriptions were brought to the patients.
“The messenger services have become even more important in the last year,” said the association’s chairman, Holger Seyfarth. With the onset of the pandemic, pharmacies expanded their delivery services almost overnight. Individuals would have had to run up to 150 errands a day. The employees also immediately advised the patients on questions about the correct application. Before the pandemic, deliveries were only made in exceptional cases.
Since April 2020, the pharmacies have received an expense allowance of 2.50 euros for the messenger services, which is borne by the statutory health insurance companies. According to the association, they calculate the cost at seven euros.
According to the Association of Pharmacists, in 2021 an average of 45 messenger services were provided per 1,000 people with statutory health insurance per month in Hesse. The federal state was thus well above the national average of 34 deliveries. Nationwide, there were almost 30 million such drug deliveries last year.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220206-99-997052/2
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