ASSESSMENT OF PATIENTS'AND PHARMACISTS' OPINIONS ABOUT ELECTRONICALLY PRESCRIBED DRUGS IN GREECE

Background: During the period of the economic crisis, the sector that has been hit hardest in the health sector is that of pharmaceutical care. The most important national reforms to reduce the cost of medicines were electronic prescription of medicines and the adjustment of the prices of medicines. The aim of the present study was to explore the views of private pharmacists and the views of pharmacy customers on the coverage of their needs in pharmaceutical care. Material-Methods: The study involved 94 private pharmacists and 84 patients - customers of private pharmacies. A specially designed questionnaire was used for data collection, which was constructed by the researchers and included the socio-demographic data of the sample.The questionnaire concerning Pharmacists had a total of 19 closed-ended questions. The first six questions concern the demographic data and 13 questions were related to the research questions. The pharmacy customer questionnaire had a total of 34 closed-ended questions. The first nine questions concern the demographic data and 25 questions which are related to the research questions.Results: Delay in obtaining drugs for one week, one month or more than one month was described by 46.8%, 36.2% and 12.8% of patients, respectively. Often, the prescription expired and had to be rewritten. The frequency of pertinent problems varied between chronic disorders (e.g., 99% for diabetes mellitus and 78.6% for respiratory cases). Use of generic drugs remains limited.Conclusions: Despite the fact that pharmaceutical care in Greece has now chosen a new condition of balancing between the shortages in terms of resources and funding and the effective and quality provision of pharmaceutical care, the results of the research show that especially for specific categories of drugs the problem remains serious and noticeable.