The Cyprus Pharmaceutical Association is calling for a cap on the quantities of medicines dispensed under cross-border EU prescriptions at private pharmacies, warning that without one, Cypriot patients risk being left without medicines.
The association’s president, Ploutarchos Georgiades, was speaking on CyBC radio in response to the launch of cross-border prescription dispensing — the right of EU citizens to fill prescriptions in member states other than their own. He described the launch of the European programme as “a positive step for serving patients who travel in Europe.”
However, he said, “there are certain issues which we have raised before the National Electronic Health Authority, which manages these matters, because they concern us.”
One such concern, he said, was the risk of shortages. “It is known that in some countries there are shortages of several medicines. Let us say that in Cyprus we do not have a shortage and we have stocks to cover our patients. If a European citizen comes and takes medicines, it means there will be a possibility that shortages will subsequently appear in Cyprus — that Cypriot patients will be left without medicines,” he said.
For this reason, he added, “and because it has not been clarified how many quantities of medicines the pharmacist should dispense when filling a European prescription, we have informed the Electronic Health Authority that there must be a cap — a limit on the quantities that someone can obtain when filling such a prescription.”
“It is an issue that concerns us and we certainly believe it must be discussed and that some limits must be put in place,” he said.
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