The “waste linked to medication” would be 1.5 billion euros per year which go up in smoke according to Ghislaine Sicre, president of Nurse convergence. Faced with this figure, Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Labor, Health, Solidarity and Families, thinks of “Recycle certain unused drugs“But what do the pharmacists think? Béatrice Clairaz, pharmacist, judges that France is absolutely not ready for this turn.
Recycle the drugs used
In an interview with the Parisian this Sunday, the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, revealed that she was going “Work with health professionals so that the products that are reported at the pharmacy are analyzed, in order to be put back on the market“. In other words, she would like to recycle them”Unused drugs“, to make them available”other patients“. A strong decision, supposed to counter the incredible waste of drugs in France. Indeed, many French medicines and medical devices – expired or not used – end up in the trash.
“Some pharmacists DElivate in Depit of common sense, typically Bo90 island compresses every month while the patient takes one per day, or what proceder at 6 bitûres when 2 are prescribed. Hospital staff fulfill prescriptions that do not meet needs, for example dressings of 3 different sizes for 1 wound. Home hospital organizations provide unnecessary boxes. Laboratories offer oversized packaging, and patients do not always ensure that they do not already have the medication before moving on to the pharmacy “, entrusted the Union Convergence Nurse to our colleagues from Que Choisir magazine.
Result: still usable drugs that could be offered to new patients (tablets, capsules, ointments, syrups and drops) end up being … cremated.
However, the very idea of recycling these drugs is not to everyone’s taste.
“In the current state of things, this is impossible to do”
Questioned on this subject, Béatrice Clairaz, pharmacist, is unconvinced. “Many drugs that we are told in pharmacies are not expired, so they are potentially reusable. Except that in the current state of things, this is impossible to do”, she regrets. She draws attention to several problems:
Safety for patients
“”How to secure the circuit of these drugs brought back by patients? “ wonders the expert. The specialist indeed confides that she and her colleagues pharmacists are “in the obligation“To scan codes present on the labels of drugs (the famous” data matrix “) – both at their reception and at the time of their delivery. These codes make it possible to guarantee good traceability of the drugs. But how to ensure that the medication delivered by a patient was not diverted/poisoned or did not remain on the sun?
The fight against counterfeiting
This same traceability guarantees makes it possible to combat fraud and counterfeit … except that with the recycling potential of our tablets, this security would be compromised, alerts the expert.
A profitability to demonstrate
“And at what price would it be done? If this operation is more expensive than waste, is it really worth it? With the social security deficit, nothing should be forbidden, but you should not do anything with the health of the patients”, continues the expert. Setting up a recycling circuit for drugs worth a few euros will it be profitable? Will this option be ultimately only for expensive drugs? We can easily understand the interest of certain anticancer at 10,000 euros per box …
A time -consuming activity
“”Who will sort the boxes of patients? It is a workload, and a waste of time, immense, which may clutter our pharmacies“, She concludes.
A practice already implemented in other countries
Does this mean that such a recycling is impossible? No, since the reconditioning of drugs is already a widespread practice in Germany, Canada and the United States.