Slovak pharmacies are struggling to retailer massive shares of expired and returned medicines. With no present public contract for the retrieval and disposal of medicines, the drug mountain is rising.
The variety of unused medicines in Slovakia has frequently risen from 145 tonnes in 2018 to 160 tonnes in 2020, and 241 tonnes in 2022. In current months, medicinal waste has begun accumulating in pharmacies, posing storage capability challenges.
Purposes for the general public procurement contracts wanted to gather and incinerate expired medicines will shut this month, with further time wanted to award and implement the tenders.
Residents are inspired to return medicines previous their expiration date if the packaging is compromised or contaminated, and in circumstances of early restoration or therapy adjustments. All expired or unused medicines will be returned freed from cost to any public pharmacy. The pharmacy is then legally obliged to gather and preserve such medicines in a chosen place.
“New medicinal waste accumulates each day; some pharmacies now not have the capability to retailer it, so the patron or affected person could also be suggested handy over expired medicines to a different pharmacy or to quickly retailer medicinal waste at dwelling,” the vice chairman of the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists, Pharm. D. Miroslava Snopková, informed Euractiv.
Unused medicines characterize not solely a wasted healthcare useful resource but in addition an financial loss for the state, which incurs double bills. First when buying the medication, then once more when assuring correct retrieval and disposal.
Why are the medicines piling up now
Expired or unused medicines returned to pharmacies are collected semi-annually, in spring and autumn. Subsequently, they’re disposed of in specialised incinerators.
The primary medication incinerator, offered by FCC Slovensko, shut down final 12 months attributable to a renovation of its advanced, placing the disposal to a halt. The final medicines assortment occurred in March 2023.
At the moment, there are not any contracted incinerators, nor an organization that may tackle the switch of the medicinal waste from pharmacies. Within the meantime, baggage filled with medicines sit for months in storage within the pharmacies.
Making certain well timed and secure retrieval and disposal of medicines is the State Institute for Drug Management’s (ŠÚKL) competence. For this objective, ŠÚKL has allotted funds from the state finances.
“The Slovak Chamber of Pharmacy has repeatedly requested the State Institute for Drug Management to resolve the state of affairs, which has develop into insufferable for a number of pharmacies in current months,” Snopková continued.
“There’ll most likely be extra pharmacies that may also not be capable to settle for pharmaceutical waste attributable to capability causes. Not fixing this downside or suspending it’s a burden not just for pharmacies but in addition a threat for all residents of the nation,” she added.
Subsequent steps
Improper disposal of medicines poses widespread environmental and public well being dangers, growing the urgent nature of this difficulty.
“Stabilising the state of affairs shouldn’t be within the arms of pharmacists, however the Ministry of Well being and the State Institute for Drug Management, which offer public procurement for the gathering of pharmaceutical waste and the availability of an incinerator,” Snopková elaborated.
A spokeswoman for ŠÚKL, Jana Matiašová, informed Euractiv: “On January 22, the State Institute for Drug Management printed a public procurement to make sure the gathering of unconsumed medicines collected in public pharmacies. events can apply for public procurement till February 23, 2024.”
Euractiv contacted firms with compliant specialised incinerators. On the time of publishing, solely the spokeswoman from FCC Slovensko, Zuzana Krenyitzká, responded, stating: “After restarting the operation of the incinerator, FCC Slovensko is contemplating the potential for taking part in public procurement. Nevertheless, the whole lot will depend on the particular procurement circumstances.”
Unfold consciousness
The rising annual variety of unused medicines underlines an issue extending past incinerators and waste switch.
To fight the alarming progress of overbuying and losing medicines, ŠÚKL and the Slovak Chamber of Pharmacists name for rational pharmaceutical consumption.
Snopková added: “We have to continuously unfold consciousness in order that we don’t needlessly create massive shares of medicines in our households.”
“We have now to method medicines, together with medicines not tied to a medical prescription, as items with particular traits, for which incorrect dealing with can imply not solely an pointless waste of funds but in addition air pollution of our surroundings and different pointless prices for the disposal of unused medicines,” she concluded.
Till the general public procurement concludes and the disposal is reinstated, pharmacies and residents should cooperate to securely retailer unused medicines and minimise the dangers of air pollution.
[By Filip Áč, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]
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