Every fifth pharmacy deficient

Stiftung Warentest: Every fifth pharmacy was rated as "poor" in the consultation. Only seven pharmacies received the rating "good".

(22.04.2010) According to a study of the Stiftung Warentest every fifth pharmacy received the title "poor". Only seven of the 50 pharmacies rated the rating "good". None of the pharmacies could get the placement "very good". Very badly cut the mail order pharmacies. Of the 23 tested pharmacies that sell drugs over the Internet, for example, only four got the rating "satisfactory", all other mail-order pharmacies were rated even worse by the Stiftung Warentest. Overall, the pharmacies were rated worse than two years ago. Of the 50 pharmacies tested, there were 23 online pharmacies and 27 pharmacies with a fixed location.

In its test, Stiftung Warentest rated the customer's advice as well as the preparation of the drug formulation. The foundation let selected customers in different cities test pharmacies. In addition to the online mail-order pharmacies, pharmacies in Nuremberg, Essen, Augsburg and Berlin were also tested. Checked were service, advice and at the online pharmacies shipping, presentation and operation of the website and the general terms and conditions.

Creating special recipes should actually be one of the special main tasks of a pharmacist. But especially in the preparation of the recipes it was hugely. According to Stiftung Warentest, even a pharmacy completely refused to create a remedy for "itching when the shingles faded away". In other pharmacies, the drug in a poorly closed packaging the customer was handed. The mail-order pharmacies looked even worse, of the 23 tested, there were no fewer than eight online pharmacies to create the mixture. At the pharmacies "around the corner" it looked with discretion of the customer and not better. A pharmacist talked so loudly on a discreet topic like urinary incontinence that the other customers present could overhear everything.

The results are catching attention. The advice of the customer was often carried out only insufficiently and was often far too short. Pharmacists partly misinformed the customer and did not recognize the interaction between medications despite simple problems. In the case of the online pharmacy, it was noticeable that they sometimes did not have the duty to produce recipes. In addition, large differences in pricing became apparent. For example, a skin cream cost 6.23 euros at one pharmacy and 12.90 euros at the other. Online pharmacies, for example, were not always cheaper than the pharmacy in the vicinity. (Sb)

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Picture: siepmannH, Pixelio.de.