According to the Saxon Pharmacists' Association, around one in ten pharmacies in Saxony has closed in the past 15 years. Their number has fallen to currently 895 and has therefore dropped below 900 for the first time, the association announced in Leipzig on Tuesday to mark the nationwide "We see red" campaign week. This draws attention to "the chronic underfunding and long overdue fee adjustment".
The association cited rising costs with "fixed fees that have remained almost unchanged for 20 years", a shortage of pharmaceutical specialists and ongoing supply bottlenecks that cause "enormous additional work" as the reasons for the development in the Free State. Under these conditions, the nationwide supply is at risk, warned association vice president Reinhard Groß. "Every tenth pharmacy in Saxony is already in the red, and a further thirty percent are considered to be at risk."
The association is urgently calling for reliable framework conditions that also offer future generations planning security "and, above all, more time to work in their medical profession". The plans known so far for the planned pharmacy reform would "massively worsen" the current situation, it said. "Instead of distracting from the real problems with bogus solutions", the Federal Minister of Health should finally talk to experts from healthcare practice in order to really improve the situation.
