I’ve recently been tasked to buy a new portion of Vitamin D3 for my kid and the pharmacist was like “we don’t have it but I can give you an alternative” and I was about to “no problem, I’ll just buy it else where” but the pharmacist responded “no, it hasn’t been available in the past 6-7 months, you won’t find this one anywhere”. Not a problem, I took the alternative.
Today, we’ve got an inhalator for bronchitis with steroids and we had to take one that was 2:1 instead of a dedicated one. I.e. again an alternative.
Overall, it’s great to have alternatives. I’ve looked up this topic online and apparently there’s a shortage worldwide of meds in general and in Switzerland as well.
Interesting, and worrying I think. Did you know about it? I’ve never experienced it before.
There has been a shortage of one of my eye meds for over two years now. There was a brief respite last January when I was able to get a small supply, but by April it was gone again. I ration what I have as best I can, using a quarter dose only when when things get very bad, as well as using the product well beyond the recommended safety time after opening, etc. Sadly, there is no alternative med that works for me.
There has been an off-and-on shortage of Phenobarbital for veterinary use. When it becomes available again I try to stockpile - but I can only get a limited amount given restrictions. I live in fear of another protracted shortage, as Robin Goodfellow has seizures daily.
My experiences pale in comparison to a friend’s, who can’t get the chemo drug recommended as most effective to treat her tumor. The alternative regime is thought to be far less effective.
I’ve experienced this a few times over the past 18 months or so.
There’s been nothing critical so far and they’ve always been able to source an alternative but according to our pharmacy it’s getting more and more difficult.
Malta has had a few shortages because of BREXIT as they always got their medicines from the UK. I find France has everything all the time, both original & generics.
I paid £98.28 for Riveroxaban in the UK & can buy in France for €24 & €54 in Malta. It pays to shop around !
The Saturday before last I woke up with most of my face muscles not working, I thought I had a stroke.
After only four hours the local hospital told me it was an allergic reaction in one eye that irritated the facial nerves.
They gave me a prescription for tablets and eye drops but the locl pharmacy did not have the drops.
After the weekend I went to the Zürich University hospital who confirmed the diagnosis and provided alternative eye drops.
Today is the first day my face is back to normal.
I was also given eye bandages with a transparent lens so it looked like I had joined the Borg and spent the last couple of weeks bumping into things and frightening small children.
oh, that’s something I have to ask my doctor then. I started wondering what’s going on. Some days my face skin is like covered with plastic, I don’t feel any touch or scratch, well just feel the touch in fingers but not on the face. It never crossed my mind that it could be linked to allergy.
So you wanted a specific brand of D3 and when it was not availalbe that became a major shortage… Despite there being many alternatives available.
There are always a shortage of some medicines, it’s a fact of live. There are many reasons for this from a shortage of raw materials to the forecasting and production runs. Most European countries experience a shortage of about 60 drugs at any one time with the UK and the US being much higher.
As bob mentioned, not unusual that something is not available at every pharmacy at all times. Not the end of the world.
However, this story would been interpreted in a completely different way, if we substitute pharmacist by used car salesman. Have you confirmed the Vitamin D3 is not available anywhere else or just taking the words of a sales person at face value? Pharmacist and all, but in the end it’s a sales person
I haven’t confirmed, this thought has passed through my head, but on the other head, would a pharmacist care to lie it’s not been available in Switzerland for the last 6 months just to sell something as cheap as D3 Vitamin to me? Maybe, IDK =)
Yea I agree, I’ve just shown my 2 experiences after which I decided to check online and apparently there’re news about it. I am not a frequent pharmacy client so maybe that’s why I did not notice it in the past.
I wish that prescribing doctors had more awareness of medicine shortages.
My experience has been that because ordering and maintaining drug supplies is done by assistants ( in my canton, the Praxis still dispenses drugs) or is completely relegated to pharmacies, my doctors don’t seem to know what drugs are unavailable. So the doctor prescribes a drug that isn’t available, the patient only finds that out after the appointment, and then has to schedule additional consultations to try to find an alternative drug. And we wonder why healthcare costs are rising.
In the case of my friend with cancer, her oncologist spent a great deal of time convincing her that drug XYZ is the best treatment, showing how other chemo cocktails have far lower survival statistics, etc. My friend agrees to the XYZ regime, and only then finds out that XYZ isn’t available, and she has to settle for something that her doctor has already told her likely won’t give her much of a chance. That was cruel, even if unintentional. The oncologist should have known that the preferred drug is not available, if only to manage expectations from the start of treatment.
I wish Switzerland would require doctors to prescribe generics in all cases Should they insist on a particular brand that should be pre-approved by the insurance company. Not that I don’t trust Dr.s but I think many of them overprescribe, prescribe some medications ‘just in case’, or have absolutely no idea what things cost.
They need to be educated as well that a patient having insurance doesn’t mean they pay nothing for treatments or medication. My Oncologist has me do a blood test before each visit and he asks for alt least 16 tests. Some are very relevant to my cancer, some are not. Some only cost only a couple of francs some much more. My last bill for tests was over CHF200.
When I joined the work force one of my first lessons was two set of eyes on everything. Reduces errors and mistakes. Who is looking over these Doctors shoulders?
Some of it is up to the patient. I asked for and got generics where available. I discuss blood tests with my GP. There are some GPs and many patients prejudiced against generics, though AFAIK, this attitude is misplaced in all but a very few cases where the formulation is important. “Biosimilars” are subject to a much more rigorous registration procedure.
Yah, had similar discussion with my Oncologist. He, apparently, has to prescribe the brand name - but I can ask for the generic at the pharmacy, if I want.
