Discussion on the process of implementing the electronic prescription system for medicines

From March 1, 2024, the law prohibits purchasing about 470 names of medicines from pharmacies without an electronic prescription issued by a doctor. Antibiotics, antifungals, antimicrobials, antiviral drugs, immune sera, vaccines, and drugs containing misoprostol are sold exclusively by electronic prescription. The government designed to expand the list of drugs dispensed with electronic prescriptions from January 1, 2025, but the decision was postponed until July 1 of current year.

The delay was caused by problems that arose during the system implementation process. During the last ten years it has become clear that for various reasons, very few prescriptions are issued electronically. As a result, the Health and Labor Inspection Body imposed very large amount of fines on pharmacies for selling medicines without an electronic prescription, which caused dissatisfaction among pharmacies. The latter applied to the Government with a letter to present the problem, however, according to them the response received from the Ministry of Health did not address the solutions of the problem.

The deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Arsen Torosyan organized a work discussion on the process of introducing the system on January 8. The deputy, considering the new system being introduced as a right decision, noted that additional and specific efforts must be made to ensure that the system works fully, which is not the case today. Deputies, representatives from the Government, the pharmacy chain and pharmacies, those responsible for the sphere took part in the discussion.

Pharmacy representatives, urging to stop the application of fines, noted that they do not want to violate the law, but doctors do not issue a sufficient number of prescriptions, and they cannot fail to serve patients.

It was noted that in case of not resolving the problem, pharmacies may go bankrupt as a consequence of fines, shadow circulation may increase, etc.

According to a pharmacy representative participating in the discussion, in order to effectively operate the system, the management of their pharmacy chain has set an additional incentive norm for employees, namely, setting a bonus of 500 AMD for issuing one electronic prescription. "With 180 pharmacies and incentives, we served 104 electronic prescriptions during December," the rapporteur emphasized.

The Deputy Minister of Health Artak Jumayan also documented that the process of issuing electronic prescriptions is technically easy and quickly implemented. According to the Deputy Minister, training and other activities will continue at medical institutions to improve the system.

Arsen Torosyan, who initiated the debate, proposed the Ministry of Health to develop specific steps to increase the number of prescriptions issued by doctors, along with a timetable, so that the problem can be resolved as soon as possible and the entire responsibility does not remain on the shoulders of pharmacies.

At the end of the meeting an agreement was reached to meet in the near future and to discuss the proposals.