Health: Lauterbach wants to make it easier to set up pharmacies

To combat the shortage of pharmacies in many regions, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to make it easier to open new ones. The Social Democrat said today at the German Pharmacists’ Day in Düsseldorf that he wanted to implement structural reform during this legislative period in order to secure the pharmacy network in Germany.

An important goal is to make it easier to set up branch pharmacies. According to Lauterbach’s ideas, there will no longer be a need for a pharmacist to be on site there. Instead, the minister said the advice could be provided via telepharmacy from the parent pharmacy.

Laboratory facilities would no longer have to be available there either. Opening times could be handled more flexibly. However, the minister emphasized that the ban on multiple ownership, according to which pharmacists cannot open as many pharmacies as they want and chains are to be prevented, is not up for debate.

Sharp criticism

However, the minister, who was connected online, was booed by pharmacists in Düsseldorf for his suggestions. The President of the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations (ABDA), Gabriele Overwiening, criticized sharply. As the first Federal Minister of Health, the SPD politician is apparently prepared to “completely destroy the pharmacy system that has been providing our population with safe supplies for decades.”

The minister’s assumption that his plans would lead to more branch establishments, especially in rural areas, was far-fetched, said Overwiening. Experience from other countries showed that the new branch pharmacies planned by Lauterbach would be founded almost exclusively in heavily frequented locations and close to the city. “In rural areas, the decline in pharmacies will initially continue indefinitely.”